


From The Shadows

by MilkNotMalk



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Betrayal, Bigotry & Prejudice, Canon Continuation, Explicit Sexual Content, First Time, M/M, Mystery, POV Alternating, Politics, Potential Spoilers, Psychological Warfare, Really OP Villain, Romance, Slow Build, Slow Burn, im sorry, this is why we cant have nice things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-04-23 01:33:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 79,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14321625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilkNotMalk/pseuds/MilkNotMalk
Summary: *In which Sasuke realizes he was a coward, Naruto realizes he was a complete idiot, and Sakura is still annoying (not really).The two boys come to terms with their feelings for each other in the weeks after their final battle at the end of the Great Ninja War. The world is finally at peace, but for shinobi, peace is always short-lived. A close shave with death so soon after their return to the village leaves everyone shaken and wary. With a cunning new enemy lurking one step ahead and seemingly untouchable, fear once again paints the ground red.In a thrilling new adventure featuring old love, new love, mortality, loss, heartache, betrayal, the faint distinction between right and wrong, and the importance of moving on from the pain of one's past, we unfortunately learn that things are not always as they seem. How can they be? As the boys will soon find out, sometimes our biggest enemy is, in fact, ourselves.When faced with a choice, what will they choose... Duty? Or each other?*"The shinobi world will always be full of love and pain, trust and fear. It is important to remember that when the light shines the brightest, it casts the deepest shadows."*





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
> 1/30/19  
> -Updating done to chapter 6  
> 3/22/19  
> -Updating done to chapter 5,6  
> -Minor updates done to previous chapters  
> -Chapter 7 under construction... stay tuned...
> 
> I highly encourage you to read the most updated version as plot flows much smoother now than the original version!  
> As much as I'd love to write a new instalment to this work, I needed to straighten out a few wrinkles I'd passed over previously to allow for better development down the road.  
> Updates will be as often as I can.  
> Comments or changes you'd like to see are always read, considered and appreciated.  
> -=WARNING=-  
> Graphic violence and graphic male/male sex will be depicted in this fic, if you don't like those parts then skip or don't read  
> Thanks!  
> \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"This place, huh? I should've figured," Naruto called from his place upon the crown of Hashirama's stone-statued head. "Doesn't it bring back memories, Sasuke?"

From across the waterfall, standing on top of Madara's stone statue was Sasuke. For a brief moment Sasuke's cold facade broke and a flash of pain flitted across the taut muscles of his face. His whole body stiffening before returning to a neutral stance. He glowered.

"Long ago, we fought here." A sad smile curled Naruto's lips as he remembered the battle from their childhood, when his heart had broken into a million pieces. How his own weakness had allowed Sasuke to leave.

But not again, never again. Naruto's training, his whole life's purpose had been driven by wanting to catch up to Sasuke, and if Naruto failed now, he wouldn't ever know how to live with the guilt that he allowed Sasuke to live such a solitary, depressing life.  _Besides,_ Naruto thought to himself,  _he wants to start a revolution by killing the five Kage and reforming the Shinobi world, I have to protect Granny Tsunade and everyone else from him, even_ if  _it's_   _Sasuke_. 

Even if it's  _Sasuke_.

"And just like before, you're going to lose." The raven monotoned. But despite his calm voice, his face raged with intensity. His scouring eyes burning into the depths of Naruto's soul. How could he look so intense while still talking so calmly, anyway?

Naruto's smile was wiped from his face. Sasuke was serious about this. Naruto could tell his claims about having changed were truer now more than ever. He could barely see the hint of humanity glimmering beneath Sasuke's cold mask. Sasuke's chakra crackled through the air like a bolt of lightning searching for the nearest pole to strike. And it was clear now that that pole was Naruto, standing across the expansive waterfall. Feeling Naruto's heart once again shatter into a million pieces at the sight, an intensity burned in his gut and his face hardened into one of focus.

"You won't be hitting me with that same punch as last time. I'm not about to let you get away with whatever you want." The blond lowered his brows. "I won't let you become the Hokage, either! You don't understand what it means to be Hokage."

"I told you, that to me, being Hokage means revolution." Sasuke answered. "It's totally different from what you think."

Naruto studied him for a moment before he spoke. Choosing his words carefully. "Let me tell you something Itachi said - it's not the one who becomes Hokage who gets acknowledged by all. But it's the one acknowledged by all who becomes Hokage."

"I learned not from Itachi's words, but from the way he lived his life." Sasuke spat, his facade being broken at the mention of his late brother. "You and I came up with different answers. Let me clarify this before we battle - I'll teach you exactly what being Hokage means to me."

The blond felt an icy chill race through his bones, freezing the blood in his veins and his heart in his chest. He had committed himself to face Sasuke in battle knowing the consequences of his stupidity in its entirety. And yet, standing here, staring down at the one person his heart had craved the most, Naruto felt his will slipping.

If only slightly.

He closed his eyes. He reminded himself why he was here. That he was the only person to take on all of Sasuke's hatred, the only person who could protect the ones he loved from his rage. He reminded himself of the ultimate sacrifice Neji had made to maintain the fragility of peace. Sacrificing himself so Naruto could live to fight this battle. And the sacrifices of so many more that had died in the onslaught of the Great War in order to give this shithole of a world a fighting chance.

How can Sasuke throw away their sacrifices just so he can create a world that would better suit  _him_ and his ridiculous idea of peace?

Was he really that far gone?

Sasuke's own brother, Itachi, had given Naruto the task of dealing with Sasuke as Itachi felt his own sacrifices in life did not motivate Sasuke to be a better person; and instead, finding he only fuelled Sasuke's rage and hatred for the world which destroyed his older brother and had unintentionally led him to this conclusion today. He thought of the pain Nagato had suffered from the backlash of human greed, how this pain can easily turn to hatred, and how hatred can warp a person's sense of justice. He thought about Obito, how he had died protecting himself and Kakashi in order to right the wrongs he had made, and to let Naruto continue creating a better world for all people. Naruto remembered his Master, Jiraiya, and how he had given Naruto the task of finding true peace for the shinobi world, where everyone can love and understand each other. A world where hatred and war would not exist. A dream that was worth dying for.

His thoughts drifted to Sasuke. _Sasuke_. The one he had always been jealous of. The one he had always aspired to be like. The one who believed there was no hope or love left in the world. The one he wanted to save more than anyone. 

And the one he was going to die fighting for the fate of the world.

 

*

 

"This place, huh? I should've figured," Sasuke could hear Naruto call over the gusts of wind billowing and the roar of the waterfall from their high perches on top of the great stone statues in the Final Valley. "Doesn't it bring back memories Sasuke?"

At those words Sasuke felt as if he had been stabbed by a knife. A searingly cold knife driven straight into his heart.

This boy who caused him so much pain, this boy who reminded him of all the good and peace in the world, this boy who had branded himself into Sasuke's heart and soul. Sasuke was being forced by fate to kill him.

Memories of their first time fighting in the Final Valley flitted through his mind. He never wanted to remember that day, let alone relive it. The heart-wrenching pain he felt when the blond had failed to stop him, when Sasuke's life and goals were so much simpler and manageable. And yet, fighting here now was the only way to end all the suffering Sasuke had endured, and to ensure it would never happen to anyone else again.

"Long ago, we fought here." Naruto said quieter, a morose smile dancing on his lips that sent another blistering cold knife to join the first in Sasuke's heart.

Why was he doing this? There must be another way. Sasuke began panicking, being careful to not let it show on his face. He needed to say something, needed to do something or this boy standing in front of him was going to ensnare him and drive him into madness, just like he always had.

"And just like before, you're going to lose." Sasuke said evenly as to make sure the words didn't just tumble out of him like vomit. He looked at Naruto with an intensity he had only ever felt around him. Why didn't he understand; Sasuke couldn't live the way Naruto wanted him to live. He couldn't go through loss and betrayal and heartbreak anymore or the shadow of a person he had become would be gone forever. Naruto was the sliver of humanity Sasuke still had within him, Naruto was the only light left in Sasuke's life. And to preserve that light, he needed Naruto to die. Because no matter what effect it may have, all Sasuke could tell presently was that him being alive was causing Sasuke far more pain than he had ever endured in his life.

"You won't be hitting me with that same punch as last time. I'm not about to let you get away with whatever you want." Naruto's face darkened. "I won't let you become the Hokage, either! You don't understand what it means to be Hokage."

"I told you, that to me, being Hokage means revolution. It's totally different from what you think." Explained Sasuke.

That's right. That's what Sasuke needed to focus on. Helping the future by eradicating the things that caused him so much pain. He was helping the future of the shinobi world by taking all the pain and suffering and hatred upon himself, so no one would have to experience the things he or his brother had been forced to endure in their lifetimes. In a world where shinobi are used as military force, death and suffering are inevitable. There is no way to obtain true peace in a world like this one, where war and death is a way of life, and therefore there is no answer to make war and death any easier on anyone. The only way to stop it from happening is to reform the system in which shinobi live.

From across the raging waterfall, Sasuke could feel those piercing blue eyes impossibly studying his own. Then the blond was calling back. "Let me tell you something Itachi said - it's not the one who becomes Hokage who gets acknowledged by all. But it's the one acknowledged by all who becomes Hokage."

Naruto was fighting back, as was expected. But using what Itachi said, using the pain Naruto surely knew Sasuke felt for his brother to defile Sasuke's beliefs was more than he could handle. Couldn't Naruto see Sasuke was hurting too? There was no other way, this was the one option left for Sasuke to end everyone's pain simultaneously.

"I learned not from Itachi's words, but from the way he lived his life." Sasuke spat. "You and I came up with different answers. Let me clarify this before we battle - I'll teach you exactly what being Hokage means to me."

Like a sheet of ice being dropped, Sasuke felt his heart break into a million uneven, jagged, cold pieces. Naruto was serious. He was seriously going to fight Sasuke to defend his pitiful beliefs. His loyalty to  _friendship_ , and  _trust_ , and  _love_ was what was going to get him killed. Ironically murdered by the someone who wanted to do it the least. Deep down, Sasuke knew that. He knew he'd always loved Naruto, as his friend, as his brother. Their bond had always been strong, so strong that they knew what the other felt, they knew when they were hurting. Sasuke'd loved his brother. He'd loved his mother and father. But now, Sasuke's pain was far greater than any love could solve. By killing Naruto, he was killing the last part of love inside his own heart as well.

Life was so unfair. How was he supposed to save the world from this hell they live in when his mind was on that boy's face every moment of the day. His last shred of humanity and emotion came in the form of Naruto's face. Naruto's smile. Naruto's laugh. Naruto's _eyes_. 

Humanity was unacceptable for the hatred he was going to make himself endure. He wouldn't be able to take on the world's hatred if Naruto were there to watch him do it. Naruto was Sasuke's everything.

Which is exactly why Naruto would have to die.

 

*

 

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

Naruto awoke.  _Am I dead?_  He thought to himself. He slowly opened his eyes gazing up into the night sky. A full bright moon shining down. Soft blue clouds lazily drifting across a dark navy. The warm night air. Naruto began to close his eyes once more.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

_What?... What... What happened, where's... Sasuke,_ Naruto wondered,  _Sasuke_. His mind began to go blank.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

_Am I dead? Is Sasuke... dead?_  Naruto's heavy eyelids pried themselves open. A full moon. Soft blue clouds. Peace. Finally. Naruto vaguely wondered if he had seen that moon and clouds before. It seemed like a distant memory.

Was he dreaming? Or was this the afterlife.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

No. What was that sound. It sounded like... water. A small feeling of panic spread through his gut like a virus.

 _Wh_ _at happened. What happened!_  The blond screamed at himself within his head.  _Can I move? I need to move._

Naruto tried turning his head, but his body wasn't responding. He tried to quell the panic building up inside him.  _Move, damn it! Move! Move! Move!_ Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and forced his head to roll sideways.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

His necked ached from what felt like whiplash and he realized,  _pain is okay, pain means I'm still alive._ He reopened his eyes and felt the air leave him in a sharp gasp. He breathed in deeply, calming his nerve, and let out an audible sigh.

Sasuke. Bloody and beaten. His raven hair glued with mud and sweat and blood across his forehead and temple. The light rise and fall of his chest. 

 _Sasuke_. Alive and breathing. Not dead like Naruto had feared. Relief swept through his chest like wildfire.

He felt the irresistible urge to reach out and touch him. Wipe the hair from his bruised face and make sure he was alive for himself. To cup his swollen cheek and hear the solid, steady thump of his beating heart in his chest.

But when he tried to reach out, instead of the cool feel of Sasuke's porcelain skin Naruto screamed in pain as darkness flitted at the corner of his eyes. It was searing and never-ending. Coursing its way from his right shoulder all the way through his collarbone and neck, down through his torso and legs. He felt like his body were on fire. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes and he squeezed them shut until the pain dulled and returned to a throbbing ache.

"Fuck." He spat.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

He tried to make sense of his surroundings. To remember what had happened. He heard the trickle of water somewhere behind him and could feel a hard, stoney surface below him. But other than that he had no indication of where he was. Did they completely destroy the Final Valley with their battle? He experimentally tried moving his fingers and toes which responded to his command now that he was awake and functioning. He peered down at his shoulder to look for a wound.

The arm was completely gone.

He rolled his eyes and closed them, and thumped the back of his head against the ground. No wonder it hurt when he had tried to touch Sasuke. The blond glanced at Sasuke laying beside him, looking for any major injuries. His eyes trailed along his forehead where his dark hair was stuck and wet. To his eyebrows and eyes, one that was heavily swollen with angry purple bruises marring his normally smooth skin. His gaze travelled down Sasuke's perfectly straight and delicate nose, and down to his pink lips that were slightly open and cut. The dark red of drying blood pooling at the corner of his mouth. A single, solitary drop ran from the corner of Sasuke's lips down to his jaw bone and curved under to his neck, where it sat tauntingly on the muscle, refusing to fall.

That's when he noticed Sasuke's left arm had been severed just as his own right arm had, and that it seemed to be bleeding heavier than Naruto's. He glanced back up at the raven's peaceful face, studying it, before turning back to look at the sky.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

They were going to die here.

They had survived the battle but had both lost in the end. It seemed fitting however. Oddly, sadistically, poetically fitting.

Naruto didn't think he could live without Sasuke. It cut him deeply when he left the village. And when he had insulted his rescue attempts. Even before this very battle. One being waged to determine the hero who would drive the world into change, whether that be fuelled by hatred or love. Yet, no matter how much Naruto tried to steel himself in preparation to face him, he would never forgive himself for nearly killing Sasuke just to prove a point.

This could never happen again.

Naruto turned once again to watch Sasuke sleep. This man who was so enveloped in hatred and pain and revenge, how was it that when he slept he looked so at peace and almost... beautiful. So unlike the rage that'd been present not long ago. Naruto felt his mouth begin to go dry, mesmerized, as he watched the even rise and fall of his bloodied chest. The way the moonlight reflected off his pale skin as if he were glowing. Then the raven's breathing stuttered and Naruto saw one eye slowly open to the world. He tore his gaze away before he was caught and returned to watching the clouds pass by overhead.

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

"You've finally come to, eh?"

He could see Sasuke shift quickly, out of instinct, from the corner of his eye. But the motion had left the raven cringing in pain just as it had with Naruto, and although Naruto didn't see it, fresh blood poured thickly from the wound in Sasuke's shoulder. He knew Sasuke was watching him, he could feel his eyes on him, predicting what the blond's next move would be. Wondering if they were still battling or if their epic rivalry had finally concluded with a bang. A bang that was inevitably going to kill them both from their injuries it seemed.

"As you can see, if either of us moves too much, we'll bleed out and die."

Sasuke's voice cracked with disuse. "Why would you go that far? Why do all that, just to get in my way?"

The raven seemed at a loss for words for a moment, understandably. To someone like Sasuke, Naruto was sure the meaning of bonds and friendship and... whatever else meant nothing. Sasuke lost the ability to wield those feelings when he decided revenge was the only way to create a better world.

"I gained the power to enter the darkness, and sever all bonds. And naturally, everyone's tried to cut their ties with me as well, at some point." Sasuke licked his dry lips.

He could feel the raven's gaze become directed on Naruto's face once more. Studying every aspect as though it were a lifeline. His connection to this world.

"But you... you've never attempted to cut me off." Sasuke's voice broke and dropped to almost a whisper. The caking blood on his lips glistening with new life (or death... whichever). "Why do you keep involving yourself with me?"

Naruto closed his eyes and smiled to himself. "You already know, don't you? Now that your body can't move your mouth sure is moving a lot--"

"Just answer me!" Sasuke bellowed like his life was resting on Naruto's answer. Then again, perhaps it was. Perhaps Sasuke was looking for some justification for... something. For his ideals? For running off on his own? For pursuing his revenge, for pushing Naruto away, for killing his brother? For turning into the monster he'd become.

Naruto opened his eyes and lowered his head to look Sasuke in the face. The raven's eyes widened ever so slightly, his purple ringed rinnegan and mismatched coal black eye reflecting the integrity behind the blond's blue irises.

"Cause you're my friend." Naruto said.

 

*

 

He couldn't look away. Not that he especially wanted to, anyways.

This boy. What was it that made Sasuke feel like this. When no one else had been able to chisel away his barriers and punch down his walls, Naruto had always prevailed.

This boy who lay here dying beside him, just as he had promised so long ago. Bleeding out in nowhere. Tired and numb. Dirtied by mud and sweat and bruises and blood. This didn't seem like a very heroic way to go out.

At least for someone like Naruto.

"I've heard that before." Sasuke said shakily, unable to control the wild jumble of emotion he'd suppressed for so long. "But what exactly does it mean to you, anyway?"

Naruto closed his eyes with a smile and tilted his head towards the sky.

"You ask me to explain it, but I really can't put it into words."

Sasuke's gaze dropped.

"It's just that... when I see you take on stuff and get all messed up... it kinda... hurts me." Sasuke's eyes snapped back to the blond's face when Naruto spoke. "It hurts so much inside, that I can't just leave it alone, y'know?" Naruto laughed lightly to himself and his gaze met Sasuke's. "Though right now, I'm in a lot of pain all over, and I can't do anything about it." He said with a grin.

Despite the circumstances, despite his company, the blond was still smiling.

It was something he always admired about Naruto, if not a little jealous at times. When Sasuke had only ever pushed people away in fear of the pain of betrayal, Naruto had always let people in without a second thought. How could anyone be so... idiotic?

The job of a shinobi is to have no true life. They protect society from the shadows and allow others to live in peace. This was the world they were born into, this was the life they had always known. So  _why_ did Naruto think disregarding those ideals was for the greater good? How could change that extreme ever hope to better the world? Wasn't it better to push that burden onto one person? To Sasuke, that seemed like the ultimate honour. To give yourself up completely for the good of the world, to sacrifice yourself as a cage for all the world's hatred.

A cage. That's all he is.

Just as Naruto had been for the nine-tails.

Sasuke blinked. The ultimate honour, huh? The raven felt confusion build inside his chest, rising up into his throat and threatening vomit to spill from his mouth. The thought made him sick. Where was honour in confining a child to a life of solitude. Stripping away their ties and family and forcing them to live by themselves, consumed by the hatred that boils them to the core. He, himself, knew that suffering all too well.

But he also knew Naruto had suffered. He'd watched it while it happened. He'd seen the nine-tails, a mass of fury and hatred, nearly destroy Naruto in its attempts to set loose on the world. He'd seen the way others had punished Naruto for being alive. Beaten and bullied by children and adults alike. Misinterpreting him as the nine-tails itself, not the child vessel he'd been forced to become. It was disgusting.

And yet, Sasuke had never stepped in to save him. Because he could tell Naruto was strong enough to keep going. A quality the majority of people would never have in a hundred lifetimes. And another thing Sasuke deeply admired about the blond.

If Naruto, the epitome of all light and good in this world, had only just been able to suppress the nine-tails powers, defying all logic and even  _befriending_ the beast, how could Sasuke ever stand a chance against the beast that was the shinobi system. What he wanted, to place the world's anger on his own shoulders, to bear the burden himself so others could live in peace... it was exactly what the first Hokage had tried to do when jinchuuriki were created for the first time. By placing the anger onto one person, logically, it'd mean the rest of the world would be free from it. And he'd seen himself what that can do to people. That only someone as strong and humble and gutsy as the blond boy in front of him could ever take on that burden. Deep in his chest, he felt this was a challenge set by Naruto. Not in the sense that Sasuke wouldn't be able to handle it, because as he was now, he couldn't. No he took it as a challenge of his character. To become someone more like Naruto. To face his problems head on rather than from the shadows. To come into the light and become the person Naruto sees in him.

Because in his rage, Sasuke had forgotten something extremely important.

His  _love_ for Naruto.

Tireless and deep. Where it felt like his mind and soul were tied to the blond's indefinitely as though by fate. This love that he only now fully realized was not purely out of a brotherly bond, but out of something much deeper and primal. A love that confused him, that he'd often seen between his parents. These feelings he'd always felt around Naruto, where his emotions seemed heightened, where his heart was physically pained when they were together, only now did he understand that this was not out of friendship, but a feeling that encompasses romance. Even though he'd now realized it, he still didn't understand it. He'd fallen in love slowly, ever since he'd first seen the boy as mere children. And that love had festered as he grew like a disease in the back of his mind, only now being hit with the knowledge that this love wasn't going to harm him and it wasn't going to make him weak, in fact it was his love for Naruto that made him human at all. 

So, in a way, did this count as a suicide attempt? Was Sasuke's anger that overpowering that he unconsciously tried to kill himself by killing that last thing that holds meaning in his life? The thing that holds the  _most_ meaning in his life.

His eyes widened at the thought. Naruto was his weakness. You don't kill your weaknesses, you embrace them. You protect them, like a vital organ. You make them stronger. Sasuke had always told himself that the problems he was trying to solve were bigger than his or Naruto's lives. It was what kept him going. But really, wasn't  _life_ all there was?

Perhaps his humanity hadn't completely faded. Perhaps life hadn't drained the love from his heart after all. And just perhaps, that love for Naruto didn't have to be something to hide or push away.

As if a switch flipped, Sasuke felt the reality of what he'd almost done cascade over his body. He couldn't hide from the facts anymore, he loved Naruto. As much as he tried to put his walls up, as cowardly and ignorant of the truth as he'd been, Sasuke couldn't even comprehend how delusional he must have been to attempt to eradicate that love from his life. The love he craved as a child when it was stripped away from him. The love that was the key to his endless cycle of pain and hatred and revenge.

The tears started to wash away the denial he had had for so long. He never thought it was his place to be happy, but in that moment, watching the colour drain from Naruto's face, Sasuke knew he had made a huge mistake.

Maybe doing things on his own wasn't the way to create a better world after all.

Naruto had passed out, his face still turned towards Sasuke and his lips slack against the cold stone beneath them. Fresh blood from his arm travelled into a pool beneath his head, staining his blond locks red and soaking into his scarred cheek. Sasuke felt helpless.

He started to panic. He started to cry. From all of the pain, and loneliness, and longing. He tried to move over, to shield Naruto from... something,  _anything_. To protect the boy as he would his own heart. But pain refused him the opportunity. A fresh stream of blood fell in a river down the length of his own body. A sob broke into a cough that sent blood spilling from his lips, mixing with the warm tears that hovered on his chin and cheek.

They were going to die here. Sasuke had realized the truth too late. 

 

*

 

_Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip..._

Naruto's body felt like it'd been run over by band of wagons. He felt broken and torn. His skin was battered and the muscles beneath limp with fatigue. And underneath it all he felt broken too. His heart ached like it'd been stabbed with a kunai, and his throat felt tight and hoarse like it does after crying. The backs of his eyes throbbed. His lips dry.

He was exhausted.

"Where are we." Naruto croaked. "Don't tell me this is really heaven this time."

"Looks like we fell asleep and slept until morning." Sasuke answered, obviously wide awake. "We've failed to die again."

It took Naruto a moment before the disbelief became increasingly evident on his own face. Was Sasuke making jokes now? Or did that mean something else entirely. Was Sasuke...  _hoping_ to die from his wounds, or was Naruto reading too much into it.

The blond tried to sit up to study the raven's expression, when his body ached like he had been stabbed from head to toe and he stopped struggling.

"Damn it! I still can't move!" Naruto said roughly, his eyes narrowing and watching Sasuke, "I was hoping to punch you hard and make you finally open your eyes!"

Then the most unexpected thing Naruto thought could happen, happened. Sasuke chuckled. Just lightly at first, before bellowing loudly with a smile on his face. Not a maniacal laugh, a _happy_ laugh.

"Eh?" Naruto was beyond confused. Had he ever heard Sasuke laugh before? "W-What is it?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto out of the corner of his eye and smiled, his gaze now devoid of its usual coldness and instead full of light and life. 

"We're messed up like this and you still wanna fight?" Sasuke teased.

Was Sasuke underestimating him again? Even when they were dying here by each other's hands.

"Damn right! No matter how many times it takes--"

"I admit it." Sasuke cut him off.

He paused and Naruto watched him curiously, waiting.

A wide smile crept onto Sasuke's face. "I've...  _lost."_

"You  _idiot!"_ Naruto yelled after a moment. Sasuke flinched back before tilting his head. "This fight isn't about winning or losing! It's about punching a sulking friend, to make him snap out of it!  _That's_  what it's about! The  _real_ match that I want, comes after that!"

Naruto watched Sasuke blink slowly.

"Hey, Naruto..."

"EH!?"

"I just... acknowledged you."

Naruto's eyes widened, his fire put out.

"If I die here, the long cycle of destiny the Sage of Six Paths mentioned will probably end as well. This is... kind of a revolution too." Sasuke closed his eyes, "You can release the Infinite Tsukuyomi after I'm dead, by transplanting my Rinnegan into Kakashi or someone else." Naruto felt himself tense, "I'll put an end to myself."

"By dying? Don't think dying will settle this." Naruto spoke slowly watching Sasuke attentively. He felt panic rise rapidly in his chest and he forced himself to remain calm so he wouldn't make some impulsive and irrational reaction. "If you're willing to die, then live and help me instead. What I want to do is to make _all_ shinobi cooperate with each other."

Naruto gulped. Sasuke wanted to _die_. That's how bad things had gotten, that's how far he was willing to go to free himself of his burdens.  _Sasuke_. Who had always been so strong and willful, powerful and passionate. A dedicated avenger who'd always longed to right the wrongs done on the innocent. A protector. A friend. Once again Naruto was hit with the prospect that he couldn't live without Sasuke beside him.

Because he  _needed_ him.

"And that definitely includes you."

Sasuke turned his head, a heavy sadness filling his deep mismatching eyes. "Just because you want that, doesn't mean others will agree to it."

"Damn it! If you keep whining and sulking, I'll slug you again!"

"There's no guarantee I won't stand against you again--"

"Then I'll stop you again! Besides," Naruto narrowed his eyes, "I know you're not going to do that kinda thing anymore."

Sasuke stared at him for what felt like forever. "How can you be so sure?"

"Don't make me repeat myself!" Naruto closed his eyes and faced towards the sky again. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Now that I think about it... you were always pretty stupid too..." He teased.

He opened one eye to watch Sasuke for a response, when he saw tears streaming down the raven's face. Naruto's vision tunnelled, his heart lurched. Sasuke rolled his head so his face was obscured.

"Shut up... loser..." 

 

*

 

It was late afternoon by the time Sakura and Kakashi found them. Kakashi inspected the damage from their battle while Sakura leapt to their aid and began healing their severed arms, stopping most of the heavy blood flow.

The great lake that fed into a waterfall dividing the two giant stone statues had been reduced to craters and rubble. Two nearby mountains had been broken apart and the scattered remains decorated the landscape with boulders the size of trees. The lake had grown bigger due to the craters filling with water around the edges and the waterfall had become only a small trickle between the collapsed statues of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

There on the rubble of the statues lay Naruto and Sasuke, a thick line of dark crimson blood coming off of both of them travelled down the rock and out of sight. Kakashi winced in pain from his injuries still not cared for from the Great War that only ended days before. He knew he was going to get scolded when he returned home. _Home._ He realized he'd never thought of the Leaf village like that before. But now, and he assumed it was because there was someone there waiting for him, the world just seemed a little better, a little brighter. Kakashi sighed in exhaustion as he admired his former squad from above.

Sasuke and Naruto stood, lining up beside each other and creating the hand sign for "rat", releasing the world from the Infinite Tsukuyomi and finally, finally bringing peace back to the shinobi world.

 

 

  


	2. New Beginnings

 

"Sasuke--... sto-- stop teasing..." The blond panted out between gasps. His unruly locks stuck up in every which way. A sheen of sweat coated the back of his neck. His powerful shoulders rising and falling in rapid succession under the ministrations of Sasuke's hands.

But the blond refused to open his eyes. Those electric blue irises that haunted Sasuke like a ghost, the very same ones he'd had an obsession with since childhood. No one had eyes like those. Eyes that commanded presence and drew attention. Only this boy. But those eyelids remained shut.

He moaned when Sasuke finally connected their bodies, pressing his pale chest against the rippling tanned back. Drawing his arms around the blond's waist and loosely taking hold of his heated length. Sasuke pumped him slowly, his hand moving leisurely up and down the shaft, feeling the quakes and moans vibrate through the boy's body as Sasuke's lips latched onto his neck. He placed gentle kitten kisses about his jawline as the blond turned his cheek into Sasuke's breath.

"Tell me, Sasuke." The blond groaned out.

Sasuke's brows pinched together. "Tell you what." He growled.

"Tell me you love me."

Sasuke paused his movements. His eyes widened. Love? Did Naruto feel it for Sasuke too?

And then those blue eyes were finally showing themselves. Unveiled by the curtain that kept them at bay. And Sasuke felt his heart stop.

"Tell me you love me." The blond repeated, eerily calm.

"Naruto..."

_Cer-CHUNK_

Sasuke was rudely awoken from his dream as reality slapped him in the face. He opened his eyes but could only see black. His arms were crossed and bound with his right hand stuck at his opposite hip. And a very hot, very hard erection pulsed against the fabric of the straightjacket he was wearing. 

"Shit." Sasuke cursed under his breath. He adjusted his position, but nothing could take away what those blue eyes did to him. Even now in the darkness they haunted him.

He heard footsteps walk into his holding cell until they were only a few feet away, and Sasuke tilted his head off the wall on which he had been sitting against. The chakra signature was Kakashi's.

"Nice weather we're having, hm?" The Jonin pulled up a chair within the cell and sat down, crossing an ankle over his knee with his arms folded over his chest. His voice was jovial. But his black eyes pierced through the chakra retaining blindfold Sasuke wore as if looking him directly in the eye. Sasuke contained a shiver.

"Hn."

"Sorry to drop by out of the blue like this, I know you're a very busy person."

He knew his arousal must've been evident, Kakashi wouldn't have made that comment if it hadn't been.

"Care to join me?" Sasuke smirked. The intention not lost in the message, though clearly a joke.

"No, actually, just came by to chat this time. I wanted to let you know I've been appointed the Sixth Hokage, which means I'll be in charge of overseeing whatever punishment the Five Kage give to you. We're holding a Five Kage Summit in Konoha later today to discuss your punishment. You've been in containment for two weeks now which is far longer than reasonable without a sentence. So, I called a Summit the same day I was inaugurated."

Sasuke's face remained expressionless. He knew this day would come. The day where all his running and betraying and murdering would finally catch up with him. And yet, despite the gnawing sensation in his gut, he felt rather calm. If he were to become a better person, he'd have to man up and face the consequences eventually, even if he didn't want to. And if he died because the world still deems him a threat, so be it. At least Naruto knew he wanted to change. That's all that truly mattered.

"Naruto wants to testify on your behalf." Kakashi said slowly. "And I will as well. Friends don't give up on each other that easily. Naruto taught me that." He got up from his chair, stuffing his gloved hands in his pockets as he made his way to the cell door. "And besides, I don't really think it's reasonable to execute you for running away from a childhood crush, do you?"

Sasuke's mouth fell open slightly in shock, turning his head in the direction Kakashi's voice came from. His chakra signature vanished, which Sasuke assumed meant he had teleported away.

One of the guards from the interrogation corp grumbled something about flashy Hokage's as he closed the cell door and sealed it, once again leaving the raven in lonely silence.

At least Kakashi was giving him a chance to redeem himself. That was more than what he expected after how he had taken Sasuke under his wing only to be betrayed and insulted by him.

Sasuke smirked softly and he readjusted his sitting position on the floor, breathing in sharply when the fabric pulled again.

"Shit."

He hit the back of his head against the wall and closed his eyes, longing to continue his dream from before.

 

*

 

Tsunade poked the end of each finger tip with a thin pointed metal rod, checking the nerve endings in the new arm she had just attached to Naruto's bicep. Each finger reactively twitched from her prodding as she moved onto checking various spots throughout the palm and forearm.

Naruto groaned. "Granny Tsunade, I told you I'm fine! A little wound like that didn't scare me and besides, I've got Kurama's regenerative abilities so he can help fix me up later." He sighed and slumped back in his chair. "I'm going to be late for the Five Kage Summit at this rate."

"Don't be stupid Naruto, your healing abilities are not magical. They can't fix something that doesn't belong to you in the first place." Tsunade quipped with a smack to the back of the boy's head.

"Ow, hey!"

"I created this arm from my Grandfather, the First Hokage's cells. It'll give you some new power but it's not fully functional yet and the chakra network needs to merge with yours before you can use ninjutsu." Tsunade frowned and continued poking, making her way up his forearm, "Although you should have no problem connecting to that chakra or using the abilities since you're _supposedly_ the reincarnation of him."

"Wha-- How'd you know about that?"

"The Kage deemed a few select individuals be kept in the loop about it after you blabbered to Kakashi after the war. Honestly, Naruto..."

Naruto laughed and crossed his left arm behind his head.

"Hey Granny, does this mean you can call me Gramps now? Hahah-- OW!"

Tsunade stabbed him extra hard.

"Don't let it go to your head. You should know better than anyone that power has a price. That thick skull of yours can't let you forget that." She smirked. "Besides, people look up to you now. You're the hero who saved the world. Every shinobi, civilian, and noble knows your name. Live up to their expectations, alright?" She said more gently, but her serious expression returned when Naruto opened his mouth to speak.

"Yeah, yeah, I know Granny, but that stuff's not important to me. I'm not even Hokage yet which means I still need to work hard. There's no shortcuts to becoming Hokage." Naruto straightened in his chair and grinned a big, toothy grin.

She smiled, thinking of how proud Jiraiya would've been to see the boy now.

"Hey, thanks for patching me up Granny. It sucks that me  _and_ Sasuke lost our arms, but now I wonder if this new one will make my rasengan even cooler!" Naruto lifted his new arm experimentally, flexing the fingers and circling his wrist. The arm was discoloured, an almost white colour that contrasted heavily with Naruto's tanned skin. She wasn't convinced that Naruto even cared though. Or maybe he just hadn't noticed.

Tsunade's brows furrowed at the mention of Sasuke.

She didn't like him. He was a criminal who killed people and threatened to destroy the shinobi world they knew. But despite all of that, she did accept him for the time being. Mainly due to Naruto's trust and loyalty to him. Whatever was going through that idiot's head was beyond her.

However giving Sasuke an arm made from her Grandfather's cells was going to pose a problem simply due to his ancestry. Because he's an Uchiha. The last time someone had mixed Senju and Uchiha DNA together, it had created a shinobi so uncontrollably powerful it had taken the Five Kage banded together and Guy opening all Eight Inner Gates to take him down. And Madara had still nearly killed them all.

Tsunade stood and walked towards the window of the hospital room, hands clasped behind her back, tuning out Naruto's mindless blabbering in the background. Would it be wiser to not surgically attach an arm to the young Uchiha, and just let him live with the consequences and guilt of where his past had led him? He could still use ninjutsu with only one hand, those two boys are the only people she knew of powerful enough to accomplish that feat. She would have to consult Kakashi first, since she proclaimed him to be her successor as Hokage. It would be bad if they gave an unpredictable shinobi like Sasuke such a powerful weapon.

"... And _then_ Sasuke punched me really hard in the face! But I got him back and I grabbed his arm and swung him into--"

"Naruto."

"Yeah, Granny?"

"What are you still doing here? You're going to be late for the Summit." Naruto frantically pulled his black t-shirt over his arms, and she narrowed her eyes at the seam between the white arm and Naruto's darker flesh. "And come back afterwards, I'm going to give you something to cover you up." She said, gesturing to the new arm with her chin.

"Sure thing Granny, see you soon!"

And with that, he took off at a full dash out of the room, the door swinging back and hitting the wall with a loud  _BANG_.

Tsunade let a laugh escape her lips and smiled softly to herself, which turned into a frown again when she remembered her earlier predicament. There may be one way to create a new arm for Sasuke that is capable of handling his inhumane chakra levels and power, but she would need to consult Shizune and Kakashi before creating any more ridiculous hypotheses. Right now, all she needed was a drink.

 

*

 

Naruto ran along the rooftops of Konoha on his way to the newly reconstructed Hokage Tower to meet up with Kakashi and his advisor, whoever he chose that to be, before they headed to the Summit. He looked up at the stone faces of Hokage Rock and paused, watching as Kakashi's face was being carved into the stone beside the other great legends of the Hidden Leaf Village, including his father, the Fourth Hokage.

Peering to the right of Kakashi's face at a blank space on the cliffside, Naruto grinned to himself, lost in his own thoughts.

Granny Tsunade was right, even though the world may treat him differently now because of what he's achieved, Naruto still needed to work hard to become Hokage himself someday, just like he always said he would. And besides, first he needed to finish his studies with Iruka to become a Jonin. He felt his mood instantly sink and he slouched down, mouth hanging open like a fish. _First he needed to finish his studies to become a Jonin._  He groaned internally, and began again, walking slowly in the direction he was headed, feeling like a weight had dropped to his stomach.

 

*

 

Kakashi was expecting Naruto anytime soon, so they would have to make this quick. It was more fun that way. Well, not the quick part. More like the impending doom of having Naruto walk in on them exposing their relationship and probably some of their dignity as well. And even when Iruka mewled protests, Kakashi always knew how to work all the right angles, submitting him to the feeling rather than the worry of being walked in on.

But today they wouldn't have time for any of that, because unfortunately it was true that Naruto would be there soon. So instead Kakashi coaxed Iruka between his clothed legs as he spread out in his desk chair. And like all the times before, the brunette's meekness faded as his eyes blew wide with lust. Turning Kakashi into a moaning mess as Iruka took him into his mouth. That wicked mouth, so fucking talented Kakashi would've been jealous if he hadn't known he'd been Iruka's first time with a guy. Well technically, they were each other's firsts, but that's a whole different story.

Kakashi couldn't look away. He was so amazing. Not just his mouth, but  _him_. He was everything, he was kindness. And Kakashi loved him. These feelings clutched at his heart and deepened the sensation, he felt his orgasm coiling down low, nearly about to push him over the edge. So close, so  _fucking_ close.

_BAM!_

"Kakashi-sensei! Let's go I'm--!" The doors to his office opened. There stood Naruto. His face drained of colour and a look of obvious horror pasted on. His arms were raised as if he was about to be attacked by something and he staggered backwards a few steps. Iruka pulled off Kakashi harshly, very embarrassingly and very nearly making him come right then. The brunette turned a glowing shade of red and leapt out of Kakashi's lap, holding the sides of his face with an equal expression of horror as Naruto. The Hokage tucked himself back into his pants. The blond's eyes impossibly widened further when he finally recognized Iruka.

Kakashi laced his gloved hands together upon his desk and smiled with both eyes.

"Glad you could make it Naruto, we were beginning to think you'd never show up." A small sting of annoyance traced his voice.

Naruto tried to answer but all that came out was a low, strangled sound.

Kakashi grinned wickedly from under his mask and stood, walking over to a cabinet beside his desk and pulling out his white and red Hokage cape and hat. He was already stripped of his green uniform vest and slipped one arm into the cape slowly, and then proceeded with the other; dragging the uncomfortable experience out as long as he could, which of course, he did with sadistic glee. He could feel Iruka glaring daggers into the side of his face, and could sense Naruto had not moved a single muscle upon entering the room. Kakashi placed the brimmed ceremonial hat on his white hair and turned to Iruka with a wink before walking passed Naruto and out the door with a flourish. 

Naruto and Iruka stared at each other, faces locked in silent screams, for what seemed like an eternity.

Kakashi's head peeked out from around the doorway. "Are you two coming?" He asked cheerfully.

Blinking the confusion out of their eyes, Naruto and Iruka followed Kakashi out the door and down into the streets of Konoha. The trio walked in a heavy silence for a long while. People occasionally bowed in respect to their Hokage and their new blond hero, and some gave words of thanks before continuing on their way.

"You're unusually quiet today, Naruto, something on your mind?" Kakashi pried innocently and Iruka batted him on the shoulder with a stern look.

With this, Naruto seemed as though awakened from a zombified trance as he literally shook the fog out of his eyes. His brow furrowed and nostrils flared. The emotion returning to his face.

"What happened back there Kakashi-sensei? Just because you're Hokage doesn't mean you can take advantage of--"

"I wasn't taking adva--"

"You misunderstand, Naruto. Kakashi and I have been together for a while now. I'm sorry, I just didn't know how to let you know properly. This is my fault." Iruka seemed to deflate and Naruto stopped walking, causing the other two to pause in anticipation.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, I'm not upset about it or anything, it just was a big shock, y'know, to learn it by walking in on you guys--"

Iruka sputtered. "Naruto!"

"Yeah, yeah, Iruka-sensei, I'm a growing boy I know all about those things. I'm not a kid anymore and... I mean, I'm okay with it, y'know." Said Naruto earnestly. "If you guys like each other, then that's that."

Iruka and Kakashi looked at Naruto with wide eyes before Iruka spoke.

"Thank you, Naruto, I'm really glad to have your blessing, it was weighing on my mind for a while now." Iruka took a step forward to place his hand on Naruto's messy blond head.

But as Iruka reached forward, Naruto turned stern eyes on Kakashi, who returned the gaze with unfazed boredom. Iruka recoiled slightly at Naruto's intensity.

"And Kakashi-sensei, if you hurt Iruka-sensei, I don't care if you  _are_ Hokage, I'll slug you right in the face!"

"There'll be no _slugging_  my face anytime soon Naruto, I never plan on hurting Iruka- _sensei_ in my life." Kakashi looked pointedly at Iruka while he accentuated  _-sensei._  Iruka blushed and shifted his eyes away. Then Kakashi was smiling innocently at the blond once again.

Naruto evidently didn't catch this as he crossed his arms and nodded curtly. Kakashi stifled a laugh.

They all turned to continue walking as Kakashi motioned to Naruto's discoloured arm. "Looks like Lady Tsunade got you all fixed up."

"Yeah, she says it's going to make me extra powerful, so you better watch out sensei, I'm coming for your spot as Hokage!"

Kakashi chuckled softly. "I don't think I'd mind Naruto, the paper work is slowly killing me and I've only been in office for a week. And... I'm not sure if I'm cut out for this kind of role anyways." He scratched behind his head. Iruka gave him a worried look.

"What're you talking about, Kakashi-sensei! Being the Hokage is the best thing in the world, you get to protect everyone--"

Kakashi waved his pestering off. "That's not what I meant, Naruto. I'm sure for you being Hokage  _is_  the greatest responsibility, but for me... well, let's just say it's not my style to be this flashy."

"Well, when I become Hokage, I know I'm going to try to be just like you, sensei. You're the greatest shinobi I've ever met!" Naruto's eyes went large as he looked up at Kakashi with unbridled enthusiasm. Kakashi couldn't help smiling a little. The boy's obliviousness would never cease to amaze Kakashi.

"Naruto, you still need to study to become a Jonin before you can even think about becoming Hokage, remember? I'll admit you're a much more enthusiastic student than your academy days but being powerful doesn't make the studying any easier." Iruka pitched in. Kakashi threw him a look of relief.

Naruto whined. "Awww Iruka-senseiii, don't remind me!"

"Now, now, we need to get going, stop sulking! Or we'll be late for the Summit." Iruka's teacher voice brought Naruto out of his momentary misery through fear. With a small yelp and a straightened posture, he fell rigidly back into step with the two older shinobi.

They made their way across Konoha to a large building that stuck out higher than any of the other buildings surrounding it. Leaf shinobi guards were placed at every entrance, rooftop and crevice around the building and bowed as Kakashi and his entourage approached.

Kakashi nodded at the guards standing by the front door. "Afternoon, Genma, a beautiful day we have today, hm?"

"Don't make a fool of us in there, yeah? Getting frisky with Iruka mid-Summit doesn't look good on our village." Genma moved the senbon in his mouth from one side to the other, an eyebrow quirked at the Hokage's feigned hurt.

"You think so highly of me, I'm touched."

Genma rolled his eyes and motioned for two shinobi to open the doors. "Everyone else has already arrived, you all better hurry."

Kakashi nodded his head briefly before turning and walking into the building. He could hear Iruka muttering fruitless apologies to Genma for their tardiness on his behalf behind as he made his way to a grande staircase lined with guards that led up into the room where the Summit was being held. He turned and waited for Iruka to catch up with him, slinking an arm around his waist before Iruka batted him away and started up the steps next to Naruto. Kakashi sighed heavily, defeated.

Upon entering the room at the top, Naruto was greeted with a handshake and a smile from Gaara, his friend, the Kazekage.

"Naruto." Gaara's face was full of concern as his pale green eyes swam in Naruto's blue ones. "Are you well? I haven't seen you since the war."

"Oh, still recovering, y'know? Being so close to death can really take it out of you," He offered a large smile.

"I know the feeling, old friend." Gaara paused before continuing cautiously. "And... how's...  _he_ doing?"

Naruto's face fell slightly, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips. "I kinda promised him to keep quiet about all that."

Gaara nodded in understanding and moved his eyes from Naruto to Kakashi and offered his congratulations on his new title of Hokage.

Kakashi thanked him sincerely and moved to introduce himself to the other Kage in the room as well. Iruka awkwardly hung back beside Naruto at the entrance, not really sure what do since neither of them had been to a Summit before. Then again neither had Kakashi, but as unjust as nature was with that man he acted perfectly with all the poise and confidence of a real authority figure. Or he just didn't give enough shits to have more respect for the more experienced Kage's, that was also a viable option.

"Thank you all for convening here so quickly after the war to discuss the matters regarding Sasuke Uchiha. I've been appointed the Sixth Hokage, my name is Kakashi Ha-"

"We all know who you are Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan, Master of a Thousand Jutsu. You were a legend feared by all in our villages before our alliance." The Mizukage spoke, eyeing his body up and down with a finger in her mouth. "I just didn't know you were so...  _gorgeous_."

Iruka absentmindedly came up to stand beside Kakashi, a frown on his face and he grabbed the sleeve of his cape ever so slightly. 

"I mean, we also knew you as a commander from the war that ended like three weeks ago, but you know, whatever." The Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi was her name, muttered halfheartedly. She was recently appointed Fourth Tsuchikage after her Grandfather retired from the position due to the physical backlash of the war.

"Hokage. You're late." Bellowed the deep voice of the Raikage, who's large body sat stretched out on his comedically small chair, his face full of unrepentant anger.

Kakashi lifted one hand in a kind of salute and waved him off. "I'm so sorry, I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life."

He smiled innocently and made his way to his seat at the round table, throwing his brimmed hat on top. The Raikage huffed at his response, the Tsuchikage laughed maniacally, and the Mizukage licked her lips. 

 _The Kage are a bunch of crazy people_ , Kakashi confirmed soundly.

Each Kage pulled up their chairs and in turn each looked curiously at Naruto still standing by the doorway, unsure of what to do in this situation.

"Come, Naruto. You are an honorary guest at this Summit." Gaara beckoned him over, gesturing to a sixth chair set up at the table between Kakashi and Kurotsuchi. Naruto walked over to the seat, glancing at Iruka quickly, who nodded encouragingly. He sat down.

"As I was saying before, I am Kakashi Hatake, the Sixth Hokage. Thank you all for coming on such short notice, I'm sure you're all as weary as I from the war. Let's not forget the companionship we had together, and may this alliance last for many generations to come."

The other Kage nodded in approval and agreement, the Raikage letting out a deep grunt sending the Tsuchikage into a tiny fit of giggles. Naruto placed his face in his hands with his elbows on the table, already bored of this political talk.

Kakashi's face turned dark and he seemed to be staring into each of the Kage's souls simultaneously, taking on a more serious tone.

"I've asked you all to come to this Summit to discuss the punishment for the criminal and rogue ninja, Sasuke Uchiha."

Naruto perked up at the mention of Sasuke, and turned his attention on Kakashi with new interest.

Kakashi continued. "He abandoned his village, worked with the Akatsuki, and trained under one of the legendary Sannin who was known for his human experimentation, Orochimaru." He paused briefly, lacing his fingers together on top of the table. "But he was also a key piece in defeating Kaguya Otsutsuki, and freeing the world from the Infinite Tsukuyomi. I can personally verify these facts, because I was there."

The other Kage's faces stiffened.

"I've known Sasuke since he was very young, I was his Jonin leader on a team with Sakura Haruno, Lady Tsunade's successor, and Naruto Uzumaki. Sasuke has had a traumatic life. That's not to say it's an excuse for his childish decisions, but I do believe that what makes shinobi so incredible is that we have the resilience to change ourselves and how we choose to live our life. I know as well as anyone..." Kakashi's eyes showed momentary softness.

From behind him Iruka watched Kakashi become trapped in his thoughts again, wanting to reach out and comfort him, but knew it was not his place to do so during this conference. Kakashi ran a gloved hand through his pale hair and continued.

"Sasuke has been in Leaf custody since his return to the village after the war. I believe it's not my place to solely decide his punishment, as his actions over the years have harmed all of your villages as well. I thought a collective decision from all Five Kage would be suitable despite Sasuke being a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village." He nodded over to Naruto. "And I have personally invited Naruto Uzumaki here to testify on his behalf. As we all confidentially learned, as well as a few important individuals including our trusted advisors here today, from after the war that Naruto and Sasuke are believed to be the reincarnations of the Sage of Six Paths' sons, Ashura and Indra from legend. Their combat power is only equal to each other's, no other person in the world can stand a chance against them today. This is why Sasuke has potential to be such an incredible threat, if he lashed back against the world none of us Five Kage would be able to stop him."

A heavy silence claimed the room and the Raikage opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Kakashi.

"Before we discuss Sasuke's punishment, I would also like to add my personal opinion. As I said, I have known Sasuke for a long time. The person he became when he left the village does not reflect who he truly is. I'm not exactly sure of the details from Naruto and Sasuke's last battle in the Final Valley, but upon finding them, I could clearly see the old Sasuke I knew was back. Fighting with Naruto had cleansed his soul of whatever darkness he was being consumed by, and I personally believe under the watchful eye of Naruto, Sasuke should be given a second chance at life. That is all."

The Raikage roared, seething. "That is absurd! How could you ever believe a criminal and murderer like Sasuke Uchiha should be allowed to walk away? He needs to be punished for his crimes against shinobi and the Hidden Cloud Village!" 

"No, I agree with the Hokage, Sasuke Uchiha has been punished enough by his life. And if what he says is true about him changing back into a better person, perhaps a less severe punishment than execution would be appropriate--" The Mizukage was cut off by the Raikage slamming his hand against the table.

"NO! He is too dangerous to be left alive! We all know the young Uchiha's thirst for blood, we will not be able to control him if he goes rogue again."

"Sasuke doesn't need control, he needs to be cared for. I can personally testify that Naruto will be able to help Sasuke change, if he has not done so already." Gaara spoke calmly from his seat at the table, staring longingly into Naruto's eyes. "Naruto helped me realize how to truly live when I used to be consumed by anger and blood lust as the one-tail's jinchuuriki. I believe he can do it again for Sasuke." 

"Oh, please, we all can tell you just have a hard on for him, no need to deny it." The Tsuchikage teased from her spot beside Naruto, giving her a clear view of how Gaara was staring into the blond's face.

Temari, Gaara's advisor, stepped forward and Gaara signalled her to stop.

"We're here to discuss Sasuke's punishment, not lover's quarrels, Tsuchikage." Kakashi stepped in. The Tsuchikage giggled, winking at Gaara and folding her hands on her lap.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I disagree with the Hokage's belief that people can truly change. A childhood friend of mine abandoned and destroyed part of our village when he was scouted by the Akatsuki. Even when I fought his reanimation during the war, he held no remorse for the crimes he committed. I don't think the Uchiha should be set free for these reasons."

"Our _entire village_ changed after the elimination of our old barbaric ways of the _Blood Mist Village_ , people are not always happy with a life of death and cruelty." The Mizukage offered, spitting with distaste like the words Blood Mist Village left acid on her tongue. "We cannot assume Sasuke Uchiha will automatically change his way of thinking, but I agree with the Kazekage, people  _can_ change for the better." 

The Tsuchikage shrugged. "I only speak from my own experiences, I don't know this Uchiha kid so it's not quite my place to talk. He's affected each of your own villages far more than he's affected ours."

Gaara crossed his arms over his chest. "It may be true that some people are unable to change their destructive ways, however I trust Kakashi's word. If he says Sasuke is out of the darkness then I will choose to believe it."

"There is also the issue of keeping the Uchiha clan alive. Sasuke is the last Uchiha which means his bloodline will end if we execute him now." Said Kakashi. Although from what he knew about which team Sasuke played for, getting a girl pregnant was going to be a problem in itself. "That also means the loss of the sharingan and the Uchiha's visual prowess. It's been an asset to the Leaf village since the creation of shinobi villages, and it'd also be sad to see such an iconic and noble bloodline fall."

"While that's true, the Uchiha clan has also caused tons of issues in the past... I mean, just look at what Madara did during the war!" The Tsuchikage argued.

"The Tsuchikage is right. Sasuke Uchiha is the type who will always be inherently evil, just like his predecessor Madara Uchiha. The Uchiha's are a clan riddled with a passionate need for vengeance. It may be better for the world if they became extinct. As for getting Sasuke Uchiha to change his ways, there will be no reasoning with him." The Raikage stated. 

"You're wrong."

All eyes turned to the blond who sat with his head down and his fists clenched on the table.

"Sasuke  _has_ changed. He'll never do all that and get messed up again. I can feel his pain." Naruto clutched his heart and looked up into the eyes of the Kage. His blue irises burned with fire. His face hardened with intensity. "After our battle in the Final Valley he told me he was willing to end his life because of the pain and suffering he had endured. None of you have any idea how hard his life has been. How hard my life has become because of it." Naruto stood out of his chair and glared around the room, his pupils shaping into slits and his voice growing gravelly. He lifted out his new arm and held a fist against his chest. "I promised him I would create a better world for _all_ shinobi, one where we can all get along together. That was my mission entrusted to me by my Master, Jiraiya, and I'm not prepared to let Sasuke be the exception to this mission! Sasuke wants to change for the better, and help  _me_ achieve  _my_ dream. If  _he's_ willing to help me create a better world, then why can't you all?"

The room echoed with silence. The Raikage's rage quelled and his eyes dropped to the table. Kakashi watched Naruto steadily.

"Well, what do you suggest we do with Sasuke, Naruto?" Kakashi asked calmly, Gaara nodded from across the table.

Naruto sat back down in his chair searching around the room for the right answer. He felt Iruka place a warm hand on his shoulder from behind him, and he took a deep breath in.

"I'll take on any punishment you all deem worthy for Sasuke. His failures are my own."

Iruka's hand tightened around his shoulder and Naruto watched the Five Kage all widen their eyes simultaneously.

"No." Gaara spoke first.

"Naruto, that's not really necessa-" Kakashi started to say, interrupted by Iruka pulling on Naruto's shoulder, turning his body to face him and kneeling down.

"No, Naruto. You will not." Iruka spoke firmly.

"Yes, I will. I won't let you all kill Sasuke, I'd rather I die and he live than the other way around." Naruto's voice was even, but his blue eyes began to swim with tears that threatened to fall.

"Naruto, keep it together." Kakashi straightened himself and looked around the table at each of the other Kage. He set his plan in action. "I propose we hand Sasuke into Leaf village custody, which means the Hokage will be responsible for him, permanently. He will be on village-arrest for six months time, before I decide whether or not to send him on low ranking missions, such as community service. We will remake him into a shinobi of the Leaf village and I will personally be his parole officer for the time being. I don't intend to send an unpredictable ninja out into the world so soon, and if he chooses to attack the village from the inside we have our own Naruto here to stop him, as well as Lady Tsunade and Sakura Haruno to care for any casualties he could potentially cause through such an attack--"

"So you're just going to keep him here?  _Inside_ your village?" The Tsuchikage interrupted, unconvinced, with a contemplative expression drawing her brows together.

"Keeping him under close watch here is the safest place to nurture him back into a functioning member of society, which ultimately, is what we should be striving towards in making a more peaceful world." Kakashi replied. "Are there any objections to my proposal?"

_(Kurotsuchi scoffed to herself a little in disbelief but eventually resorted to inevitable acceptance. The Hokage was right, they needed to be thinking towards the future instead of stubbornly focusing on past events that had gone wrong. Naruto was close to Sasuke like she had once been close to Deidara, and so she knew the pain Naruto must have felt when Sasuke'd gone off to join the Akatsuki would've been similar to her own._

_She knew Deidara like she knew herself: stubborn, irrational, crazy... explosive. He tended not to think on the long haul very often, honestly he preferred living day by day rather than thinking about the future at all. Perhaps someone like Deidara wouldn't have been able to change his ways and come back home, but this Uchiha kid had done exactly that, and maybe instead of focusing on his wrongdoings, she should listen to the ones who knew the kid best._

_She wasn't her Grandfather, and the times they lived in now are different than when he was her age. She'd decided on being less stubborn and inflexible when she took on the role of becoming Tsuchikage, and here, it seemed, she'd finally be able to make a difference.)_

"Is six months enough time?" The Mizukage spoke softly, unsure of the answer herself.

"I think it's fair seeing as the Leaf village needs working shinobi to create revenue. With someone like Sasuke who's able to complete high ranking missions, it will come at the cost of the village as well as the individual. This way we are all responsible, in the Leaf village, with helping in Sasuke's rehabilitation."

The other Kage each nodded in agreement, liking the idea of their villages being financially ahead of the Leaf village in some way, if only for six months.

"Any more objections?"

Everyone shook their heads. The Raikage grunted before he spoke. "And what if this plan fails, and Sasuke Uchiha doesn't change his ways by the end of the six months. What happens then."

Kakashi sighed and closed his eyes, knowing someone as violent and brutish as the Raikage wouldn't accept anything other than the ultimate punishment as an answer. However, it was fair, considering Kakashi was really pushing to keep Sasuke's sentence light. This was the plan he'd created with his strategist, Shikamaru, after all, and that kid hadn't failed him yet. He'd just have to have faith that Sasuke wouldn't fuck anything up in the next six months.

"Then he will be sentenced to death and executed."

The Raikage nodded his approval.

 _"What!"_ Naruto stood from his seat, hands slamming the tabletop. "No! You can't  _kill_ _Sasuke_ , that's so unfair to him! He's trying to be better, why can't you just--"

"Naruto--" Kakashi started, but Naruto's fear couldn't be quelled so simply.

"--accept him? Yeah, he's a bastard and yeah, he was a little lost for a while there, but you can't just  _execute him_ because--"

 _"Naruto."_ Kakashi stood from his seat, his usual nonchalantness all but gone. His face was serious, his voice strong and commanding. Needless to say, Naruto shut up. "This is the best we can do for him. Have faith in Sasuke, our decision on his execution is final. He  _will_ be fine."

Naruto watched him worriedly, fierce concern drawing his brows together, his lips in a tight line. The silence hung heavily between them for a long moment, the other Kage and their guards watching the exchange with quiet anticipation.

Kakashi sighed, his voice softening. He sat back down in his seat and some of the tension in the room dissipated with the action. "Sasuke's strong, and he never does anything halfway. If he's truly committed to atoning for his crimes, then I believe in him. He won't be executed, it's not in his nature to go out that easily."

Naruto considered this for another long moment, then he was reluctantly retaking his seat. Iruka smiled sadly at him from behind. Kakashi rubbed at the back of his neck, a little regretful for the tone he took with Naruto, but as long as the message got across then he guessed it was okay.

After an agreement was made, written out, signed, and sealed, the Summit ended and the Kage and their entourages said their farewells before they each headed in their own directions towards home. Kakashi remained in the Summit room lost deep in thought with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Naruto said his goodbyes to Iruka, promising dinner with him at Ichiraku's that night as he, too, headed home.

Iruka walked up behind Kakashi and wrapped his arms around the pale neck in front of him.

"'Kashi?" He asked quietly, turning his face to kiss Kakashi's masked cheek tenderly.

"Hm?"

"Talk to me, I'm here for you." Iruka kissed Kakashi's temple and moved the hair off his forehead.

"Hm." He turned his face in Iruka's direction and placed his forehead against his and closed his eyes. He breathed in Iruka's scent and reached a hand up to pull down his mask. Kakashi leaned up and kissed him, soft and slow, savouring the warmth Iruka brought to him when he was feeling down. He pulled back and looked into the brunette's dark, chocolatey eyes.

Everything about Iruka was warm and good and perfect. Everything Kakashi was not.

Iruka released his arms from around his neck and pulled up a chair. He sat with his knees crossed and hands folded in his lap, waiting for an explanation.

"I see so much of myself in Sasuke, sometimes it feels like I'm watching myself from long ago." Kakashi began, his eyes becoming hazed the way they always did when he was feeling vulnerable. He shrank into himself and Iruka felt like he was watching a boy, not the strong, fearless leader of their village. He reached out a hand and held Kakashi's knee.

"I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different if Minato-sensei hadn't brought me into the ANBU. The ANBU ruined parts of me. It made me thirst for blood and hunger to kill. But I was so self-destructive before I think the ANBU actually saved me from running rogue like Sasuke did." He looked up into Iruka's deep eyes once again. "But unlike Minato-sensei, I failed Sasuke. I had nothing to give him to save him from running. I... I just wish--"

"You did nothing wrong, Kakashi. Both you and Sasuke lead different lives. You've learned to be happy." Iruka gave him a smile, "You've saved, helped, and inspired so many people. And now you are being recognized for that by being appointed Hokage." Iruka grinned at Kakashi and moved his hand from his knee to Kakashi's gloved one, clasping it within his own, "Because of you, Sasuke is being given another chance to emerge from the shadows himself. You should be proud of yourself."

Kakashi stared wide-eyed at Iruka. A single, solitary tear dropped from Kakashi's eye which Iruka lifted a hand and wiped away with his thumb, keeping his hand rested softly on his face.

"But what if he can't change. What if the Raikage is right and I'm putting too much faith in Sasuke. Naruto--"

"'Kashi, don't doubt yourself. If Sasuke loves Naruto as much as you think he does, then I don't think we need to worry about that."

Kakashi pondered this for a moment, knowing how his own love for Iruka changed him into a better man, and how Iruka's love for him helped him realize it.

Iruka was right, as always.

Sasuke was going to be fine.

Kakashi sighed, his moment of weakness gone. He watched Iruka watching him and a sudden mischievous glint flashed in his eyes.

"I'm not entirely sure I believe you Iruka- _sensei_ ," he drawled teasingly with a smile twitching at his lips, "I think I need some more persuading."

Iruka rolled his eyes, the soft, loving expression he wore before now replaced with a tight-lipped frown. He dropped his hand from Kakashi's face and unclasped his hand from the gloved one, and stood up from his seat making his way to the door.

In one elegant swoop, Kakashi grabbed Iruka around the waist and pulled him down onto his lap, capturing him and tickling his ribcage until Iruka eventually gave in. Kakashi's lips were on his neck and behind his ear, whispering sweet nothings as he kissed and sucked. Iruka turned in his seat to kiss Kakashi fully on the mouth. Arms wrapping around his lover's neck endearingly.

"OH NO you don't! Out! Go do this somewhere less public you two." Genma walked in the room and towards them, shooing them away with his arms. Behind Iruka's back, Kakashi made the teleportation hand signs and they vanished with a  _poof_ leaving Genma alone in the room with a slowly spinning chair.

Genma shook his head wearily, noticing in their haste Kakashi had forgotten his brimmed red and white Hokage hat. Now the question was, should he bring it to Hokage Tower or Kakashi's house -- whichever place Genma wouldn't accidentally walk in on them fucking. Or... wait... didn't the Hokage _live_ in Hokage Tower? He cursed his luck as he grabbed the hat and made his way out the door.

 

*

 

The sun began to fall and the cloudless sky shifted from bright blue to a soft orange by the time Naruto made it to Iruka's to grab him on his way to Ichiraku's for dinner. He bounded up the outdoor steps to the second-story apartment and knocked briskly on the door. The door creaked open. Kakashi was barefoot wearing only his dark uniform pants and a mask covering his face that ended just above his collarbone. Splotches of deep red littered every inch of available skin, and knowing his sensei, Kakashi was parading them around on purpose. Naruto decided looking away with an exasperated sigh was better than staring, because _ew_. It left very little to the imagination as to what had been going on in that house prior to Naruto's arrival.

"Yo." Kakashi greeted him with a small salute of his hand, then he turned and called into the house. "It's Naruto."

Kakashi opened the door fully and, with a wide sweep of his arms, invited Naruto in.

"Coming! Coming." Iruka came tumbling around the corner, hastily pulling on his sandals and pulling his hair back into a ponytail as he stood and grabbed his wallet and keys from a shelf by the door. "Ready to go, Naruto?"

"You better be ready to pay for my ten bowls of ramen." Naruto deadpanned as Iruka leaned up into Kakashi's toned body for a quick peck on his masked lips. Then he brushed past the blond and out the door. Naruto lowered his eyebrows and pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then at Kakashi's eyes menacingly.

They exchanged pleasant small talk on the way to Ichiraku's, meaning Iruka listened patiently and Naruto babbled and bounced around the street waving his arms to emphasize different parts of whatever story he was telling. Iruka was just happy to be with him. He had been so worried about Naruto all throughout the war, a war which was being fought to get to Naruto himself. He feared the worst, obviously, but knew if Kakashi was out on the battlefield with him somewhere he could protect him. Now, Iruka realized, Naruto didn't need protecting. He had become an incredible shinobi and Iruka felt a surge of pride within him, remembering the trouble-making boy he used to be. He remembered after the war when everyone had returned home, to find Tsunade and Sakura at work on an unconscious Naruto and Sasuke with bags under their eyes. He felt so helpless when Kakashi had told him what happened in the Final Valley, and thanked every god of every religion everywhere that Naruto had survived in one piece... well almost in one piece...

"...ka-sensei? Hey, you in there?" Naruto waved a hand in front of his face, snapping Iruka back to reality.

They had made it to Ichiraku's and Naruto was gazing up into Iruka's face suspiciously before turning and walking to his usual seat at the ramen stand. "Hey old man -- the usual. For both of us please!"

Iruka followed him in and joined him on the stool adjacent.

"So, what were you thinking about back there? Hey! Were you even listening to my story!" Naruto said, flabbergasted, and nearly dropped the chopsticks he'd picked up.

"Sorry, Naruto, I just have a lot on my mind right now." Iruka chuckled a bit to ease the tension-filled words, but Naruto leaned in skeptically.

"Kakashi-sensei isn't being  _mean_ to you is he? Because if he is I'll just-"

"No! No. Naruto, everything's fine. Actually, I was just thinking about how happy I was that you accepted our relationship. I know it must seem a little weird for you -- me and him." Iruka said sheepishly. "But it really truly makes me happy to have your approval." Iruka smiled warmly at Naruto as their bowls of ramen were passed over to them by Teuchi, the shop owner.

Naruto's eyes went wide, momentarily forgetting their conversation at the appearance of food.

Teuchi smiled. "Dig in boys, I'll just be in the back if you want more." He moved some pans into the sink then walked through an open door in the back, and out of sight.

Naruto pressed his hands together. "Thank you for the food!" He yelled, perhaps too loudly than what was necessary, or appropriate. He dug in, slurping the noodles hungrily with a smile on his face. Then, he paused, mid-bowl, and set his chopsticks down.

Iruka turned to him, confused.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei?"

"What is it, Naruto?"

"Do you ever think... of Kakashi-sensei... as... beautiful?" A dark pink dusted his tanned cheeks and he studied his ramen intently.

Iruka sat for a moment, slightly struck by such a strange question, then he cleared his throat and shifted in his seat and chuckled lightly.

"Why, do I need to start protecting him from you, too?" Iruka joked as he slurped another bout of noodles.

"Me... too-- what? NO! No I just..." Naruto scrambled to find his words, not sure what he was even trying to really get at. "Is it normal to think of men as beautiful?"

Silence sat heavy with anticipation as Iruka chose his words carefully.

"Some men think men are beautiful, yes." Iruka picked a plump piece of pork in his chopsticks and studied it before popping it into his mouth. "It's a perfectly normal thing. And to answer your earlier question -- yes, I think Kakashi is  _very_ beautiful."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief and he picked up his chopsticks again, stirring the noodles in the broth but not eating it.

"After our fight at the Final Valley, me and Sasuke were dying." Iruka stopped eating and lowered his chopsticks as he listened to Naruto speak, his grim words catching his attention. "Some parts feel a little hazy, but I remember there was a bright full moon that lit up the ground like it were the sun, y'know. Sasuke was laying next to me, unconscious, and I remember watching how the moonlight lit up his entire body as though... as though he were glowing." Naruto wedged his hands between his knees and his face blushed a little harder. "I remember thinking he looked beautiful in that moment."

Iruka smiled softly to himself and continued to eat, picking up the bowl to drink the broth.

"Some people think it's... unnatural." Iruka pondered. "But I don't. And if you need to talk, Kakashi and I will always be there for you, you understand?"

Naruto sniffled. Then presented Iruka with a wide, sincere grin. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

The chuunin nodded. He gestured his chopsticks to Naruto's food. "You're not going to finish, Naruto? What happened to that promise of making me pay for ten bowls?"

Naruto smiled sheepishly at first, before growing into a wide, white smile. He scratched a hand behind his head.

"Only ten? I thought I said twenty!" He opened his blue eyes and watched Iruka for a moment, before turning back to his food and slurping down the rest. "Hey, old man -- another one over here please!"

 

*

 

Kakashi shifted from foot to foot outside the cell. Was this the right thing to do? Iruka seemed to think so, but Kakashi still held some doubts.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face before reaching out and releasing the chakra-binding seals on the door. The shinobi guard beside him lifted a heavy metal latch up, turned it, and swung the door open allowing him entry.

Kakashi nodded to him. "You may leave now, I want some time alone with him."

The guard hesitated, then bowed and, signalling to the other dozen or so guards lining the halls, left the building quickly and efficiently. A resounding  _bang_ echoed around the empty halls of the containment area, casting the interior into silence. It was an old cell block made from a time when the Second Hokage led Konoha. When the distrust between Senju and Uchiha was still evident. Lord Second had made these cells specifically for Madara Uchiha, should he choose to return to the Leaf Village, or in the case of an Uchiha uprising against the Leaf. In other words, they were the perfect place to keep someone like Sasuke under control.

"Are you going to come in, Kakashi, or just stand there all day?" He heard a smooth voice emanate from the darkness.

Kakashi smirked under his mask and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Oh, well, you know me. Afraid of the dark."

"Hn."

He walked inside the holding cell as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. Pulling up a chair from the corner and setting it in the middle of the room backwards, he straddled it, hanging his arms over the backrest comfortably.

Sasuke was sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall. The straightjacket he wore only holding one arm down, and a mask-like blindfold that covered and retained the chakra from his eyes making him seem subdued and vulnerable in the dirty interior of the old cell. Kakashi always smiled to himself when he saw the blindfold, Sasuke was the bearer of the mysterious rinnegan, no way something like a blindfold could contain such immense power. But the council had insisted upon it so here they were.

Sasuke's face looked pale and gaunt. He had had little appetite since they first brought him here, and his black hair fell limply around his neck, its usual volume lost. Not to mention it'd grown another inch or so. Kakashi liked to imagine Sasuke would have a fit seeing his pretty hair like this, but that thought would have to wait.

"How's your arm feel?" Kakashi pried curiously.

No answer.

A smirk crept onto his face once again. Conversations with Sasuke were always fun. Kakashi was always answered with silence, a  _hn_ noise, or a sassy comment that had Kakashi clinging to his dignity. But this time Sasuke wasn't just ignoring him with his silence. Kakashi could tell that was... nervous anticipation? Huh. _You'd think I'd be better at reading him when he reminds me so much of myself,_ Kakashi thought grimly. Guess he was losing his charm.

"I've come to relay the decision the Five Kage have made from the Summit." Kakashi eyed him curiously. "Naturally, Naruto offered to take your punishment for you." He paused and Sasuke visibly stiffened against the wall. "But we deemed that inappropriate given the circumstances."

His smirk widened into a devilish smile behind his mask as he continued. "You have been given six months of mandatory village-arrest, you are free to do as you please during this time but you must check in with me on a weekly basis for parole and a comforting heart-to-heart chat. You will not be allowed out of the village by any means, and you will not be taking missions during this time either. An ANBU guard has been assigned to watch you for the remainder of your sentence. Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in death by execution. A small sum of money will be granted to you monthly to cover the living costs you would otherwise get from missions, as well as your family's fortune they left behind. I'm sad to say that we've had to have a little work done around here due to our village being annihilated by Pain, so the Uchiha clan compound is no longer standing. The village will provide you with accommodation until you can pay for rent on your own, or find a new place to live here. Understood?"

To his relief, Sasuke nodded slowly.

"Well then, let's get these things off of you." Kakashi knew he should feel more nervous taking off the straightjacket and blindfold, but he also knew if Sasuke truly wanted to kill him and leave, he would have done so already.

Kakashi stood from his seat and sauntered over to where Sasuke sat on the cell floor and kneeled down beside him. But when his fingers first made contact with the buckle on the blindfold, Sasuke flinched harshly away and Kakashi was oddly aware of the flaring of chakra within Sasuke's eyes. Kakashi paused hesitantly before reaching again, this time being met with less skittishness. He undid the straps that secured the blindfold around Sasuke's head, and Sasuke opened his eyes for the first time in two weeks, blinking the haziness away and trying, desperately, to adjust to the dim light of the room. Kakashi watched the purple rings of the rinnegan twitch this way and that with particular interest. And unsurprisingly, Sasuke's other eye flared with the familiar red and black design of his mangekyo sharingan. Sasuke's eyes were narrowed, his face hardened. He looked like an animal about to pounce.

"Are you planning on killing me, Sasuke." Kakashi asked bluntly, his hands remaining on his knee where he was kneeled on the floor.

Sasuke's intensity wavered, then faded away. His sharingan was replaced with onyx black. He turned his head away. Sasuke shifted his feet under him and Kakashi helped him stand, slowly and wobbly, with only another minor flinch away by the Uchiha. Kakashi walked out of the room briefly when he was sure the raven wasn't about to fall over, and returned with what Sasuke recognized were a pair of the dark Leaf shinobi uniform -- shirt and pants. Kakashi walked behind him and undid the buckles fastening the straightjacket, and helped his injured arm out. Sasuke eyed him warily the whole time. Then Kakashi left the room while Sasuke changed and looked up as the raven emerged, one long dark sleeve hanging flimsily beside his body.

Kakashi lead the way to the exit and paused, turning back to Sasuke with his eyebrows raised. "Ready?"

Sasuke nodded.

 

 

 


	3. Reflection

 

After being in complete darkness for weeks with nothing but the shuffling of guards changing shifts to tell what time it was, the intensity of the sunlight overhead felt like it was burning Sasuke's sensitive eyes to ash. Kakashi led the way, just a pale outline among the searing white landscape, and Sasuke blinked his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to make out details. It was ironic really, that his whole life he'd prided himself on the Uchiha's superior vision, and yet after three weeks of darkness he was as helpless and vulnerable as a child. If anyone wanted him dead, now was certainly the time to do it.

But eventually the details did come, like a faint painting on a white canvas. The outline of faded green trees overhead. The gray path in front of them that he could now associate with the consistent crunch of gravel. Even Kakashi's taller frame and spiky white hair was coming into focus.

The gentle breeze was as soothing as it was irritating, since the cold early autumn nip sank right through his thin shirt and speckled goose bumps across his chest and arms. It danced along his pale, sickly flesh in his hollowed cheeks and collarbone, swirling and curling as though skating on white ice. His limp hair ruffled and danced along with it, splaying across his face and the back of his neck. He knew he must look like absolute shit. Like a corpse walking among the living. He was sure if he lifted his shirt that he could count every rib along his torso.

Kakashi didn't speak, and for some reason that comforted Sasuke more than words would anyway. Sasuke had never really been one for small talk.

As his eyes adjusted completely Sasuke found himself in the shadow of a large building. The gravel path underfoot had become interspersed with stony bricks as forest bled into town. And even though Kakashi continued on, slouched shoulders and gloved hands stuffed into his pant pockets, Sasuke's footing faltered as he took in the bustling street.

Konoha was not a place he expected to see again, unless to see it in rubble.

The heart of Konoha was buzzing with shops and carts and people wandering everywhere in between. A pub's door was open down the street and he could hear music drowned out by the voices of drunken laughter emanating from it (despite it only being early evening). A food vendor had set up a cart on their right that was selling fresh produce and was currently haggling a price down with a customer loudly. A man carried a child on his shoulders, wincing when his hair was pulled in the child's bubbling excitement. A trio of young shinobi women, not much younger than Sasuke, giggled amongst themselves as they shot glances Sasuke's way. Then one gasped and whispered in the other's ears and all three quietly made their way in the opposite direction. A large merchant beside them, who's booming voice lit up the street before, had petered off as his eyes settled on Sasuke passing by. It may have been his imagination, but people almost seemed to take a step back whenever he passed. Like they were afraid of being too close.

And despite their best effort to conceal themselves, Sasuke could sense the presence of fifteen... no, sixteen ANBU Black Ops trailing the pair along the rooftops.

Suddenly, as if a dark cloud had followed Sasuke, the street around them went silent.

"Th-That's him! That's Sasuke Uchiha!" He heard someone frantically whisper from his left.

"It can't be!"

" _No!_ Don't look him in the eye, you know what they say."

"Those Uchiha eyes are cursed with death, right?"

"No, the other one. How he can control your body just by looking at you."

"What was Lord Sixth thinking, bringing him back into the village." Someone murmured from his right in the crowd.

The whispers followed him like a plague, but Sasuke refused to even flinch at the harsh words. These people were beneath him, hardly worth turning his chin to look at. So his face fell into a cold mask, his head held high and his footing sure. But soon even that grew harder and harder to bear as the villagers grew more confident in their numbers.

"Traitor!" Someone called from behind him, lighting the spark that built into a flame.

"Filthy Uchiha." Another spat from his left.

"You don't deserve the sympathy Lord Sixth gives you!"

"Scum!"

"He shouldn't be allowed to live!"

Soon the crowd turned into a mob, angry and writhing but still too hesitant to take a step towards him. The threats and insults trailed him as he made his way further and further down the street. Kakashi chanced a glance back to be met with impassive, distant, cold, dead eyes. One would wonder why Kakashi hadn't stepped in, but Sasuke was grateful for the lack of it. He didn't need Kakashi's pity on top of everything else.

They continued to walk in silence down the street, and the hum of the whispers died off, but eyes continued to follow when they rounded the corner onto a secluded street on the outskirts of town.

The street was more of an alleyway, really. But it was clean and neat. A neighbour across the road had a tiny garden growing under the windowsills with brightly coloured flowers. There was a bench with a large tree a couple buildings away. It was quiet, peaceful. The buildings all looked relatively similar besides the paint jobs along the eves and frames that he supposed were the tenants way of providing meager personality to their private street. But it was alright. Much better than Orochimaru's caves, for certain.

Kakashi walked up the steps that led to a second floor apartment and pulled out a set of keys with a flourish from his vest pocket. He opened the door, stood aside and swept his arms towards the darkness within.

"Ladies first." A playful glint sparkled in his eye. One Sasuke did not return.

He gingerly stepped inside, scouring the front hallway for traps and noting that the trailing ANBU had seemed to halt their pursuit as well.

"These are your keys--" Kakashi jingled them and tossed them to Sasuke in a low arc. "--don't lose them. We furnished the whole apartment for you. It's not much but hopefully better than that cell you were rotting in." Kakashi leaned his lithe frame against a cabinet near the front door and crossed his arms. "You look like hell."

Sasuke turned his gaze to Kakashi's, rinnegan burning into the unfazed boredom that claimed the older man's eyes. Kakashi smirked, amused.

"Still better than you were before, though." With a sigh, Kakashi pushed himself from off the cabinet and opened the front door, preparing to leave. "All I really need to say is take care of yourself, Sasuke... We're all really glad to have you home, even if you're not exactly thrilled about it. I can tell it means the world to Naruto and I don't need you breaking our little hero's heart again." He looked back over his shoulder, and Sasuke held his gaze firmly despite the pang of hurt that spread through his chest at the mention of _again._  "I'll expect you for a brief meeting in my office tomorrow evening, I hope you get settled in alright."

Kakashi stepped out the door and began closing it shut behind him when he heard the low, smooth tone of Sasuke's voice. "...Thank you."

Inside the apartment Sasuke walked around, memorizing the layout and looking through some of the drawers and cabinets. There was a front hallway that lead into a large room with a conjoined kitchen and dining room. A living room filled with a large variety of books, some more well worn than others. Sasuke stared at one in particular. An extremely weathered orange cover that brought back memories of his days as a genin. An old book Kakashi always had his nose stuffed into at any odd moment. He smirked.  _Curious._

Across the way was a small bedroom with a queen sized bed, already made with dark blue sheets and pillows. It was so strange for everything to seem so... normal. As if he hadn't been living on the run for the past four years. He thought back to the dark, dank rooms he was given whenever he and Orochimaru moved between hideouts, and more recently, to all the sleepless nights on the forest floor.

A bed was something Sasuke had become so unfamiliar with, and something he  _never_ wanted to associate with that snake-man again. He wished he were innocent like the days of his childhood, where a home with a family was something normal to go back to everyday, and he envied his younger self for taking advantage of such love and warmth.

He walked into his kitchen to discover all the cabinets were pre-filled with groceries, and into his bedroom to see the drawers stacked with pairs of the standard shinobi uniform, without the green vest, and also towels and toiletries. He grabbed a towel and headed for the adjacent bathroom, running a warm shower and stepping into it. 

Sasuke couldn't remember the last time he had a shower, let alone one with running hot water. He had become so obsessed with revenge that it had driven him away from the comforts of home, away to bathe in cold streams and lakes. To go days without eating while completing rigorous training. Sleeping with no warmth in his cold, empty bed. He had allowed himself to become a lifeless, hard, shell of a man. One that was slowly melting away with the burn of the water. He began thinking this is what Naruto might feel like against him; like the sun melting his deep rooted coldness and covering every inch of his skin with warmth. His thoughts on Naruto lingered. His breathing quickened.

Sasuke spread his fingers and dragged his palm down the course of his body, feeling his fingers touch over the length of his neck and down his chest, over his soft nipples and over the bumps of his ribs. He lightly fingered a scar on his abdomen, and moved his hand slowly over the taut muscles underneath. And then lower until his fingertips brushed the coarse hair above his slowly hardening length. Sasuke bit his lip lightly and closed his eyes, letting the water wash over his face and through his hair. He moved his hand lower, shyly almost, and gingerly brushed two fingers over the length of his swelling hardness.

Sasuke had only done this a few times before; he'd found no point in these trivialities on his journeys when the only thing that ever managed to get him off was the thought of his old best friend. He had, admittedly, awoken many, many times with a rock hard erection between his legs from his dreams, where he could never seem to control himself as well as usual. But Sasuke never had thought his dreams could become a reality.

That was almost wishing for too much. And yet...

He moved one hand down and boldly held his length in his hands, and imagined Naruto's mouth engulfing it instead, with large, blue, innocent eyes staring up at him. A fantasy that'd first driven him mad when he was younger and still discovering his preferences. But now he moved his hand steadily, playing deftly between the lines of comfort and complete unravel. He groaned quietly and leaned heavily against the tiles of the shower, his knees shaking underneath him as he continually pumped himself harder and faster.

The precum sliding through his fingers causing sweet, wet suction and allowing his hand to move more freely. He twisted and played with the sensitive head, feeling himself grow more and more desperate until his hips were bucking and heat flash-flooded every nerve in his body. He came bursting into ribbons that coated his hand. His vision momentarily went white around the edges as he slowly came down from his high, panting heavily with half-lidded eyes.

He scrubbed himself clean and allowed the ecstatic feeling to linger while he tried to regain his breath. But the feeling didn't last as long as he'd like, because the cold hard fact of the matter hit him like a landslide. That he'd just jacked off thinking about Naruto knowing that Naruto wasn't his. Maybe would never consider _being_ his.

A darkening sense of guilt brewed in his gut. He knew Naruto cared for him. He had called him his friend, his brother. He had chased Sasuke to the ends of the earth to bring him home. But what had all of that meant, anyways? These feelings Sasuke had always felt around Naruto, the ones that clutched his insides in a death grip and pulled him magnetically towards the blond... did Naruto share these feelings about Sasuke? Is this what love-- a romantic love-- felt like?

Sasuke looked down at his body, thoroughly disgusted with himself. He'd only just survived the war, he'd only just realized his true feelings for Naruto, and much more recently, he'd only just gotten out of what he was sure was going to be his execution. And here he was immediately after it all, masturbating. His thoughts were consumed entirely of how pathetic he truly was.

Yet, deep inside him, something told him this self-evaluation was good. To know that he still had the capability to love someone, romantically or platonically. However he knew when it came to Naruto that it was something even deeper than that. Naruto felt like an extension of himself, like a part of him that Sasuke had never known. It's not that he was a narcissist, only that to Sasuke, Naruto felt like his other half. Like they were truly two pieces of a whole. He realized he didn't even know very much about Naruto, and yet somehow, he knew everything about him. Sasuke wanted to know him more. He wanted to  _be_ with him more. To cultivate this love, whether in the end it would become platonic or romantic, and to explore what made Naruto so intriguing to Sasuke in the first place. Naruto had been the only person to ever successfully bring Sasuke's walls crashing down, and instead of feeling vulnerable, Sasuke felt surprisingly relieved.

But mostly, and more than anything in this life now upon reflection, Sasuke just wanted him to be happy. He wanted to hear Naruto's laugh and see Naruto's smile, he wanted to be the one to make him do it. For all the times he'd disregarded the unmitigated truth that he loved Naruto, because he always had. For all the years of pain and suffering he'd pushed on the blond. He knew Naruto had forgiven him, but the real question was, would Sasuke ever be able to forgive himself?

 

*

 

"So Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto batted his lashes and clasped his hands behind his back. He swayed a little on his feet, like he was unsure whether or not to approach Kakashi's desk while the Hokage's sharp eyes burned holes into the papers he was pretending to read. But, as always, Naruto's thick head didn't get the message. "When do you think I can start going on missions again."

"Naruto, I'm doing very important Hokage work right now, I need some space. How about visiting Lady Tsunade like I suggested twenty minutes ago." Kakashi avoided the subject, hoping Naruto would chase this bone instead. He curved his eyes into a classic Kakashi-smile over his dark mask, before quickly returning to a bored expression and looking back down at his papers unenthusiastically. His all-time favourite book, Icha Icha Tactics, was sitting precariously in his lap, still open to the page he'd been reading before Naruto had loudly burst into the room and interrupted his self-indulgence. Well, that had been twenty minutes previous, but Naruto's resolve was unwavering and he continued to wait in thin silence with stubborn expectancy. Kakashi finally gave in with a sigh.

"You can't go on missions yet. Your role to play is here for now."

"But  _why._  I'm not needed here right now, plus I'd rather be trying out my new arm in the field, y'know? I wanna see what it does! Aw c'mon please Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto continued to whine and Kakashi felt a migraine coming on and touched his temples softly in one hand, rubbing in slow circles with his thumb and middle finger.

"No, Naruto, you will remain in the village, that's an order. Your body needs time to heal after the war, training is good for your mind and body, but pushing yourself too hard can be even more damaging than taking a break every once in a while." Naruto huffed and tuned him out, having heard this speech before. "Besides, there's finally peace throughout the shinobi world, there's no battles to fight. The only missions we've received lately are those with help for repair or relocation, and there are plenty of shinobi in the village available to help. The alliance the Five Great Nations has made has spread to the shinobi of smaller ninja villages as well, and we are hopefully looking at a long period of peace between all shinobi. Haven't you been saying all this time that that is your mission?" Kakashi put the paper down flat on the table and folded his gloved hands on top, peering curiously at Naruto, who had begun drooling a little from the mouth with distant eyes, obviously thinking about ramen, or something similar. As if to confirm his theory, Naruto's stomach growled, waking the blond from his trance and pulling him back to the present with a shake of his head.

"Yeah but I don't get why  _I_ have to be stuck here and other people get to go out  _there_ on missions. I can help rebuild too!"

"Naruto, were you even listening to what I was saying before." Kakashi said exasperatedly and he sank a little lower in his seat.

"But why can't it be Sasuke here protecting the village while I go out and rebuild?" Naruto asked, confused.

Kakashi, dumbfounded by the levels of stupidity rising from the blond, almost choked on his tongue.

"Speaking of Sasuke," Kakashi latched onto the new topic like cat hair to yoga pants. "He was officially let out of containment this afternoon, I thought you should know."

"Sasuke is out of containment and you didn't  _tell_ me?!" Naruto almost yelled.

"Well... I just did."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak but no words came out and Kakashi raised an eyebrow. The blond's face hardened. His childish posture from before taking a more mature stance. His brow furrowed and his fists clenched at his sides. But surprisingly, his voice came out hesitant, curious.

"Is he... okay?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi studied him for a moment, choosing his words wisely. "That's not my judgement to make."

Naruto nodded, his eyes alight with new fire.

"He's in an apartment on the eastside, near the woods. It's quiet there. I thought he could use some time to recover in peace." Kakashi added as an afterthought. "He won't be around to protect the village anytime soon. That's my job, after all." He rubbed at his neck sheepishly. "Which means you're staying in the village to make sure Sasuke is doing alright. So... no missions." He concluded and picked up the paper on his desk. "Is there anything else you needed? I  _am_ very busy, you know."

Naruto cleared his throat. "No, that's all." He scratched the back of his head, a flustered smile spreading warmly across his cheeks. "Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi levelled him evenly, hoping Naruto got the message drilled into his head. It was part of his master recovery plan for the Uchiha, after all. Having Naruto nurse Sasuke back to health like something that was certainly straight out of some of Sasuke's dreams. Oh, god, did he miss messing with these boys' feelings for each other.

Naruto turned on his heel, heading straight for the door, when Kakashi smiled wickedly under his mask.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Naruto looked back, confused. "To see...  _help_... Sasuke?"

"Not to visit Lady Tsunade?"

The blond frowned. "Why would I do that?"

"Well she informed me of you forgetting to go and see her after the Summit? Something about your new arm and wrapping it... I didn't understand most of it she was yelling and so very angry..." Kakashi's eyes glimmered with excitement, the only thing giving away from the unfazed boredom he so carefully kept showing. At his words Naruto's eyes widened considerably, and Kakashi could almost see his heart speed up like a cornered animal.

"I  _have_ been telling you to go see her for the past twenty minutes, have I not?" He added as the cherry on top, and Naruto's resolve crumbled completely. He turned and ran from the room at full speed, not bothering to close the doors on his way out. 

 

*

 

For whatever reason, the expanse of Konoha from Hokage Tower to the hospital felt further than it ever had before.

Limbs nearly shaking with adrenaline, Naruto leapt from rooftop to rooftop, his face only now falling from the frozen look of horror it'd taken since he'd left Kakashi's office. In the past day since the Summit, Naruto had been so caught up in other matters he'd completely forgotten about Tsunade wanting him back for a checkup. But could she really blame him? There was a lot on his mind right now. He's been antsy to get out of the village ever since his broken body had recovered, and now, with this new news of Sasuke being out of containment, the whole world just seemed a little bigger, a little brighter. But as much as he wanted to go see... or I mean,  _help_ Sasuke in his recovery, Naruto knew Tsunade wouldn't take that as an excuse for wasting her time.

He gulped audibly at the thought of being Tsunade's punching bag having been there before long ago. It's not that he couldn't protect himself, it's just when she's angry,  _she's angry_. And that's more terrifying and emotionally scarring than a punch to the face would ever hurt.

A crashing sound down on the street below alerted him and drew his mind and eyes away from their current path for a moment. An elderly man, his arms and legs willowy and thin, cursed to himself as he knelt down to pick up the heavy wooden planks he'd dropped. And even though another man came to give him assistance Naruto leapt down from the rooftops as well, his fear of Tsunade being pushed into the back of his mind as he hefted the planks onto his own shoulder.

"Here, Gramps, let me take that for you."

The old man's eyes widened impossibly, then his mouth broke into a large smile. The way his wrinkles pulled at the corners of his mouth and his missing teeth made it look like more of a grimace than a smile, but Naruto paid it no mind as he flashed him one of his own bright white ones.

"Why thank you, Naruto. I never would have guessed you would be the one to come help me." The old man's voice quivered. "What a kind boy."

Naruto felt heat rise to his face, flustered as he waved off the compliment. "Where are you headed, Gramps?"

The man considered him for a moment, then waved him back down the street to an alleyway. It wasn't closed off, down further he could see the end of another bustling street, just as it was back behind him. Besides a few rusted cans and speckles of grass pushing through from the bricks and the constant dripping sound of a leaky pipe, the alleyway was empty.

"Just here is fine." The old man gestured to the ground and, mildly confused, Naruto set the planks to the side.

He was about to ask what he was using the planks for exactly, when the old man gripped his wrist firmly with such hidden strength that Naruto was put a little off guard. The old man was still smiling up at him, and in their close proximity Naruto could see the yellowish tint to his eyes from age, the stretch of loose skin that pulled across his face and crinkles at his temple. And the man had a long ugly scar, as though made by a kunai, that stretched from his ear down to his mouth on the left side of his face. He was almost tempted to take a step back, but out of respect he kept himself stubbornly in place.

"Thank you so much, my boy. You are truly a kind soul." The old man's voice was firmer, deeper than before. The strength of his bony fingers around Naruto's wrist clasped tighter and suddenly the chakra in his right arm rippled. The sensation felt like a dull electric buzz through his veins, similar to when he shared chakra with Kurama or any of the other tailed beasts. The man let go, his eyes hard and watchful, waiting.

Naruto blinked. Then he jumped, excitement bubbling as a grin spread from ear to ear.

"Hey! You must have been a ninja, huh, Gramps? I felt your chakra when you touched my arm, it felt so powerful and full of life!"

The man didn't answer for a moment, and Naruto blinked confusedly.

"Yes, that's right." The old man's voice was strong and firm, contradicting his frail physique completely. "Long ago I was a shinobi. But that is no longer a path I can follow and have since retired from that life." His smile was more genuine and comforting now, but his eyes were hard and cold. Naruto could only imagine what someone at his age would have been through, the wars he must have fought and the comrades he would have seen die. He himself had had enough for a lifetime, but this man seemed tired, sad, scarred. It was humbling, to say the least. "However no matter what I have done in my life or what I have seen, I will always remain a forgettable face in the crowd. It is the natural way of the world."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest on instinct, but the man only chuckled at him.

"Yourself on the other hand... well, you're special, Naruto. You're an exception to this rule, and I as well as many others will be envious of, and respect you for it. The shinobi world will always be full of love and pain, trust and fear. It is important to remember that when the light shines the brightest, it casts the deepest shadows." The man levelled him evenly, his eyes hard as stone. "You be careful, my boy."

Naruto nodded, curious. He was confused and intrigued. Why had the old man decided to tell him these words? It sounded more of a warning than a message, really. The world was at peace, Naruto and Sasuke had defeated the enemy together, joining the light and shadows towards achieving a common goal. And now Sasuke was here, with him, ready to change for the better. Ready to help the world become a better place. Standing by Naruto's side as he'd always hoped it could be. There was no pain or fear anymore, Kakashi had said it himself. Everyone was looking for a progressive way to look towards a brighter future for all shinobi, not as individuals or as clans or as villages anymore, with borders and rules to separate them. It was like an epiphany when everyone realized they are all fighting for the same cause, to protect the things they care about most. And it was for that reason that taking the first step towards an allied world was simpler than it would have been in the past. The old man's words didn't apply to the new world they lived in, they couldn't apply.

And still, his message sunk deep into Naruto's core like an iron weight, immovable from where it claimed purchase in his heart.

Naruto cleared his throat, his eyes unwavering from where they were locked onto the old man's with conviction.

"I will." He answered, feeling the weight of the words and knowing, to some degree, they were probably true.

Now that his job was done, he decided leaving Tsunade waiting any longer than he had already would probably be bad news for his perfectly intact skull, so he turned on his heel and strode to the end of the alleyway, throwing a parting glance over his shoulder at the old man behind him. But what he saw, or more specifically, what he  _didn't see_ , was the old man that had been there not three seconds before. And either that old man was the world's fastest sprinter or he suddenly vanished from the spot, Naruto would never be sure. A chill shot up his spine and his body tensed, and despite every alarm in his brain telling him to just  _scream_ and  _run_ , Naruto opted to only walk swiftly away until he could relax.

But unfortunately, he stayed tensed and spooked all the way to the hospital, vaguely rendering a screaming flash of pink hair as he was bombarded the minute he stepped through the front doors. He was knocked back onto his butt, the wind pushed out of him as a fist had connected with his belly. His eyes popped out of his head in an attempt to regain his breath.

"You're late!" Sakura quipped, her hands on her hips as she loomed over his wheezing body. "Lady Tsunade asked you to come right back after the Five Kage Summit to get your new arm wrapped up and sealed, but  _you_ decided to go into  _hiding_ for the rest of the day,  _didn't you?"_  

Naruto blinked at her confusedly, his brain not receiving enough oxygen to form a complete thought. Instead, a strangled sort of groan broke past his lips as he grimaced.

"She's expecting you in her office immediately,  _don't_ keep her waiting any longer." Sakura stated tersely. She turned on her heel and clicked off down the hall, looking back over her shoulder to see Naruto getting to his feet to follow.

They opened a door on their right that lead into Tsunade's office which, as usual, looked like a hurricane had just passed through. Paper covered every visible surface of the room, with a few experiments of some sort set up around the counters. Scrolls the size of wagons wielding sealing formulas lay open on the floor in a corner, some crumpled at the corners like they'd been stepped on occasionally. A large window sat behind where Tsunade, herself, had her face pressed into a microscope on her desk, a bottle of sake in one hand, and looked up angrily at the intrusion. Her anger deepened when she saw Sakura and Naruto upon entry, drawing dark lines between her brows and a scowl set firmly on her lips. She stood from her seat and immediately turned her back to them, rustling around in a drawer.

"Sit." She ordered, and Naruto sat. To the chair across her desk which Naruto had occupied only a day before. Sakura came to stand by Naruto's side, throwing him a frustrated look when he turned his eyes pleadingly to her.

Tsunade returned with a thin piece of rolled fabric, many metres long, and screeched a chair across the floor to settle down beside Naruto's right side. She studied his arm, her serious expression never leaving her face as she trailed her fingertips firmly up the length of it, feeling the muscles and ligaments underneath. Then her hands glowed green as she checked the chakra network, confirming that everything was working as it should. She frowned, puzzled, and Naruto subconsciously shrank back in fear.

"How does your arm feel today, any loss of movement? Can you hold things alright?" She absentmindedly murmured, her eyes holding a strange kind of intense focus that she reserved for when she was really thinking hard. Naruto would know, he'd seen it on her before when she healed his and Sasuke's injuries after their fight.

Naruto laughed hesitantly, hoping to dissipate the tension in the room. "Yeah, good as new, Granny!"

Tsunade nodded lightly, still seemingly deep in thought, the green glow from her hands leaving as she picked up the rolled fabric that had been sitting in her lap. She started with his fingers, carefully wrapping each individually and with care, then moving along his hand and wrist.

Naruto frowned, one brow raising as his curiosity finally got the better of him. "What's this thing for though?"

"It's a seal." Tsunade answered.

"Uh..." Naruto looked at Sakura, then back at where Tsunade was wrapping up his forearm. "But why."

Tsunade sighed deeply through her nose, her eyes still oddly distant. "This arm contains power that your body may not even be able to handle, we haven't tested out how my Grandfather's abilities will react to being attached to your body. Combining two strong forces together can lead to even more power, but it could also potentially destroy you from the inside out on a molecular level. The seal's so that your body doesn't unconsciously try to destroy the arm, and vice versa."

Naruto, baffled by the information, looked to Sakura for a translation.

"It's basically like your body may go to war against itself, Naruto. We don't know if it will happen for sure, but it's a precaution we need to take regardless." Said Sakura.

Naruto nodded, not really understanding, but if Sakura thought it was okay then it was probably fine.

Tsunade finished wrapping, to where the seam between tanned flesh and the white artificial arm met on his bicep, and she cut the fabric and tied it off. She beckoned Sakura closer with a nod of her chin, and Sakura crouched beside her watching the hand signs Tsunade made carefully.

"For whatever reason, in the case I'm not around, this is the sealing jutsu I'm placing on Naruto." She finished and placed her palm on Naruto's forearm, where a sign that read  _seal_  appeared and white lines wormed out from it, wrapping around his arm, and then suddenly it all disappeared, hidden from view.

Naruto flinched at the feeling. It was like a dull electric current had buzzed under his skin. Familiar and perplexing. But for some reason it also felt like a heavy weight had been placed on his right arm. He tried twitching his fingers, the feeling inexplicably foreign and removed.

"Why did it disappear? Usually seals are visible." Sakura asked curiously. She leaned in closer, poking Naruto's arm like a particularly interesting experiment.

"It's a lost seal from the Uzumaki clan." Tsunade stood and walked back around her desk, grabbing a small pointed metal rod that she had used to poke Naruto before, "I don't want people knowing he has uncontainable power at his disposal. Imagine if that information got into the wrong hands. Naruto's powerful enough, but with power even  _I'm_ not certain if he can control or not, it's a gamble to allow other people access to this information, or for them to try to exploit it. That's why we can't let people know we used a seal." She came back around and squatted beside Naruto again, flipping his arm over and poking the different nerve endings in his fingers and up his arm, all reacting normally. "Well, it seems you're all in working order, Naruto. Now, maybe try making a rasengan with your right arm, just so we know the chakra network is fully operational." 

Naruto held out his hand and focused the chakra into it, feeling the power surge in his body as he released it into a contained ball of blue energy in his palm. After a moment, Naruto dispelled it and lines of blue energy wafted around the room before disappearing.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure if that sealing formula is enough to contain all of your power, but it's better than nothing." Tsunade headed back behind her desk as Naruto and Sakura headed for the door. "Oh and Sakura... Shizune and I are going to be away out of the village for a few days, so I'll need you to take control of the hospital in my stead. Just come back later and we can talk over the smaller details, alright?" 

Sakura's eyes went wide, but Tsunade was already dismissing the both of them with a wave of her hand.

"Where do you think Lady Tsunade's going if she's leaving me in charge of the hospital... I've never had such a big responsibility as this, oh god, Naruto, what if I mess everything up! What if she's disappointed in me?" Sakura whined as the pair pushed from the hospital's front doors and into the streets of Konoha. Sakura wrapped her arms across her chest, and Naruto tapped her shoulder as he stopped moving.

"Don't worry so much, Sakura. If Granny thinks you can do it, then you definitely can." Naruto grinned. "She's counting on you."

Sakura worried her lip, then turned her gaze from Naruto's face to the ground, disheartened but deep in thought.

"Hey, I have an idea." Naruto offered. "Let's go get ramen, I'm so hungry I could put Ichiraku out of stock!"

Sakura smiled a bit at that, and Naruto thought she almost took the bait. But then she was turning away from him and continuing down the street.

"Could we just... go sit somewhere first? Let's get food later." She suggested and Naruto replied with a chuckle as he fell back in step with her.

They walked in relative silence. Sometimes joking and sometimes talking. But it wasn't until they reached a more secluded area, off the street on a grassy hill surrounded by trees, that they finally decided to sit. And when they sat, Sakura finally opened up to him.

"So... Sasuke's out of containment." She said softly, hugging her knees close to her chest. A dusting of pink spread from her nose to her ears. Naruto took a deep breath, then spread out on his back with his head cradled in his arms.

"Yeah. I know." He replied. Sakura shifted beside him, looking down at him from the corner of her eye.

"Have you seen him yet?" She asked.

Naruto chewed on his cheek, watching the way the clouds drifted lazily overhead. The last time he'd admired the clouds like this, he'd been dying by Sasuke's hand. And Sasuke by his. Even though he'd been in an adrenaline induced stupor, he could still remember the vivid memory of soft clouds against a dark navy sky. Sasuke's pale skin glowing in the moonlight. The fear that clutched his heart in a vice grip when he thought he'd killed his best friend. And the bare rise and fall of his chest that was Naruto's only indication that he was still alive.

And he was still alive. Alive... but well? Naruto couldn't say. He wanted to go to him, to help him in this strangely forgotten world. To be his shoulder to lean on and his hands to feed him. Even if he knew Sasuke's pride would never allow Naruto anywhere near him like that. Sasuke was guarded and independent. He didn't need Naruto like Naruto needed him, he  _knew_ that. So why was it that Sasuke had come back, after all? That very question had been haunting Naruto's every waking moment since their return to the Leaf village. Why had Sasuke come back. After all this time, all this running, did he finally give up or was there a reason behind it all in the end. Perhaps Sasuke had just finally come to his senses. It mystified Naruto, and would continue to do so until he got an answer out of the raven.

"No." He finally answered after a few silent moments. His face was lax but his voice was hard, and he could see Sakura jump a little at the sound of it. "Have you?" He asked more cheerfully, a grin weaving its way onto his lips.

Sakura shook her head. "No... Kakashi-sensei won't tell me where he's staying, probably to keep it classified." At that, Naruto stiffened. Because Kakashi  _had_ told Naruto where Sasuke was, but he refused to tell Sakura. Whatever the reason behind that was. He decided not to pursue it for now. "I was going to offer my own house, not... because..." Her face bloomed red but she continued anyways. "Well, cause my mother would look after him, I know she would. He could have home cooked meals and a family to look after him. I thought that'd be nicer than staying by himself, but I guess it's too late for that." She added solemnly, her eyes sparkling with distant thoughts and so very far away as she spoke.

Naruto turned back to the sky once again.

"You're a really nice person, you know that, right Sakura?" He cooed and Sakura blushed harder. "Besides, I still have to punch that bastard for making you cry all those years ago, but I haven't had the time yet. And I don't want Mama Haruno getting mad at me for punching her guest, right?"

Sakura giggled a little bit, her knees dropping to the side so she could lean over Naruto. Her emerald eyes swam with a flurry of emotions, but Naruto couldn't pick any one out in particular. But she was smiling, and that made him feel better that he'd finally cheered her up a bit.

Her smile dropped slowly, and she licked her lips. "What do we do when we see him again?"

Naruto tried searching the sky for the right answer, then he tried searching Sakura's eyes. But honestly, he didn't know. He didn't know what he'd feel or what he'd say. Sasuke just  _being_ _here_ was enough to make him want to dance and scream and laugh and cry. Obviously, he'd never do any of those things in the bastard's presence, but it made a little fuzzy feeling in his chest warm with delight. That Sasuke was here. That Sasuke  _wanted_ to be here.

For now, though, he needed to stay strong for Sakura's sake. She needed support right now, god knows what she must be feeling. Probably similar to dancing and screaming and laughing and crying, if whatever emotion Naruto felt for Sasuke was anywhere near the insatiable love Sakura felt for him.

Naruto grinned. "We punch him in his pretty face, of course."

And then Sakura laughed, her eyes crinkling a little at the corners and her white smile spread across rosy cheeks.

"I just want him to feel comfortable here. There'll probably be people that hate him but you're his best friend and I'm... well, I'm..." She trailed off, her gaze shifting to the grass beside Naruto's head. "I don't know what I am to him..."

Naruto frowned a bit, readjusting his hands pillowing his head. He couldn't lie and tell her Sasuke loved her back, because Naruto didn't know if he did or not. Sasuke was an enigma in terms of his feelings and emotions. And despite feeling more connected to Sasuke than he had any other person in his life, Naruto suddenly felt like he didn't know the raven at all. 

"It's different for you, though." Naruto consoled. "Because he can definitely learn to love you back, I know it. That ice prince isn't as dense as he looks, trust me."

Sakura laughed, pushing lightly against his ribcage. Then she rested her head against her shoulder and leaned back over Naruto slightly.

"Besides, you're hot  _and_ smart. What's not to love about that?" Naruto teased, but on the inside it killed him a little. Because buried way beneath the surface, he'd never really outgrown his childhood crush on Sakura yet. Or so he thought. "If he's too blind to see that much, then he's an idiot."

Sakura just smiled sadly down at him. Then she was leaning closer, her eyes fluttering shut as her face was brought closer to Naruto's. And Naruto, thinking she was going for the lips, had a brief moment of panic. Instinctually he moved his face to the side, so her lips would connect with his cheek instead. But of course, she was never aiming for the lips anyway, and as both of them moved to the side, their lips unintentionally connected.

In the past, Naruto had envisioned this moment tirelessly. He thought when he kissed Sakura there'd be some sort of spark or heat or  _something_ that would make him feel complete. And happy. But now, there was nothing.

His body, however, denied this knowledge twirling around in his brain, and his lips responded to Sakura's touch on pure instinct. They seemed almost frozen there for a second, before Naruto pushed himself from the ground to be level with Sakura, one hand curling about the base of her skull and fingers carding up into her hair. Then her arms were wrapping around his neck as her lips moved against his. He placed a hand on her hip, his thumb subconsciously rubbing circles under the fabric of her clothes. It was feisty and impersonal, but Naruto didn't even know what he was doing let alone consciously _thinking_ about it. And then, as quickly as it came on, Sakura pulled abruptly away. With one hand she wiped at her mouth and with the other she ran through her pink hair.

Naruto froze, realizing the implications of what they'd just done. What they'd been talking about before.

"You..." Sakura's voice cracked with emotion and tears formed in her waterline as she, nearly immediately, went berserk. "You  _idiot,_ Naruto!"

Reality hit Naruto like a knee to the groin and a kick to the chin, sending him spiralling backwards as Sakura pushed herself to her feet. Devastation lined every inch of her face, and her emerald eyes weeped with tears like waterfalls.

"Why would you do that!" She yelled at him and when he didn't answer, too shocked to speak, she stomped off in the opposite direction.

It wasn't his fault! It was an accident! And besides, she'd reacted just the same way as he had at first. But it was more that they'd been talking about Sasuke beforehand that Naruto supposed Sakura was blaming him so harshly and unjustifiably when really, all they'd done was kissed. For like, less than a minute, too.

"No, wait, Sakura! I... I didn't... That wasn't..." But his words fell on deaf ears as Sakura continued hurriedly away, leaving Naruto angry and hurt and confused and mortified in the clearing.

 _"Shit."_ He spat out and his hands clenched into fists.

For a moment, he just sat there feeling sorry for himself. The area he was in was quiet, nothing but the chirp of the birds and the rustle of the leaves overhead was any background noise to the wave after wave of frustration that passed through Naruto. It was getting close to evening, the sun starting to set off in the distance and painting the sky a faded orange.

There was no one around. And Naruto needed to let his frustration out somehow before it ate him alive. 

So, of course, what better way to let out your anger than a little one on two hundred hand to hand combat? Naruto made his shadow clones, immediately falling into rhythm as he ducked, dodged and fought back. Poofing versions of himself out of existence. But for some reason it still wasn't good enough, so he transformed all his clones into the first thing he could think of that he wanted to punch, Sasuke himself. And just like that, one Naruto and two hundred Sasuke's battled it out in the clearing, clouds of smoke poofing them away when he'd connect a fist to Sasuke's perfect jaw, or a kick to his sternum. His versions of Sasuke were wearing the standard shinobi uniform, black shirt and pants and a green vest. And after the two hundred were defeated, Naruto's chest heaving and limbs aching, he made two hundred more.

But something was wrong. His arms felt heavy and sluggish, his vision blipped at the edges, and more often than not he was getting nailed in the face or ribs by Sasuke in attacks he normally would've been able to dodge. Wiping the sweat from his brow he aimed a punch at the closest Sasuke to him, only to have his fist caught in a surprisingly strong grip. And upon closer inspection, this Sasuke was different from the others. He didn't have the green combat vest the others did, and this one, although wearing the dark uniform shirt and pants, had its left arm sleeve hanging flimsily by his side.

By now Naruto was panting, his lungs gasping for breath that he was unable to take in. His eyes hardly able to stay open as he staggered backwards, losing his footing and falling to the ground. The world spun around him as he frantically grabbed at the grass to seek purchase. Something was seriously wrong, this felt different than normal fatigue from fighting. Naruto tried to look up at the Sasuke again, but bile formed in the back of his throat and suddenly he was dry heaving onto the grass, his entire body quaking as it was wracked violently. He could barely even support his own weight, his elbows and thighs quivering with effort. Vaguely he heard the poofing of his shadow clones as they almost instantly and simultaneously ran out of chakra.

"Naruto?" He thought he heard someone in the distance. Low and smooth and beautiful, like a song. But Naruto couldn't even grasp onto the words to ground him to consciousness, because he was already falling. Falling and falling into the darkness that consumed him, the haziness in his gaze turning as blank as the emptiness of his thoughts. And he was completely gone before his body even hit the grass.

 

*

 

The office doors slammed open and Tsunade decided whoever it was, was getting a red slap to the face. She was not in a good mood. And as she looked up, taking in the sight in front of her, it only worsened more so.

Naruto, completely limp and lifeless, was thrown over the shoulder of Sasuke Uchiha. The raven's face was open and readable, for perhaps the first time Tsunade had ever seen him. Anguish. Torment. Distress. Those were the first few signs given as to how bad the situation must really be. For Sasuke, Naruto's equal and rival, to be this concerned about his well being, something must be terribly, terribly wrong.

So instead of asking questions she rushed over to the doorway, pressing two fingers under Naruto's ear to check his pulse. Sasuke was chanting almost hysterically under his breath, saying _"please, please_ _,"_ over and over like his life depended on it. And while the thump was slow and dull in Naruto's body, it was still very present.

"He's alive." Tsunade concluded and Sasuke answered with an  _"oh thank fuck"_ as Tsunade scrambled passed him to the doorway across from her office. It was a special room reserved for only the most intensive cases. "Come with me, and set him down there." She pointed to the cot across the room and the Uchiha obeyed. It was difficult for Sasuke, but he managed to place Naruto on the bed with such delicacy you could've misplaced the blond as a sleeping baby.

Tsunade sharpened the chakra at her fingertips, using it as a blade to cut through the material of Naruto's shirt and tear it from his skin. At a first glance, nothing seemed particularly wrong with him. His skin only had some mild bruising and scrapes. Nothing looked broken or torn. Just a thin sheen of sweat covering from his forehead to the hem of his pants. She activated the chakra in her hands and they glowed green with life as she checked for internal injuries, doing a routine sweep of broken bones, spinal issues, brain damage, or muscle tears. Finding nothing of the sort.

Tsunade was utterly confused.

 

*

 

"What..." Sasuke tried to speak but his words came out thick with emotion, almost inaudible. "What's wrong with him?"

His eyes were wild, scanning every inch of Naruto's body as though it would tell him the answer. His sharingan and rinnegan activated and searching along with him. He could feel himself getting worked up and he couldn't control his emotions any more than he'd want to right now. Naruto was dying, that's all Sasuke could tell. And he had no idea why.

When he'd seen him, out in that clearing retching and stumbling like his body didn't belong to him, Sasuke had known something was very clearly wrong. And when Naruto had collapsed, his breathing thin and faint, Sasuke thought he was about to lose him. The sheer, raw pain you feel when you can only helplessly watch the person you love die can't be described unless through experience itself. Sasuke had already lost his clan, his mother and father. He'd even watched as his precious older brother fell in front of him. And despite seeing Naruto almost die many times before, Sasuke himself being the one to try to kill him at some points, now that it was actually happening while all Sasuke could do was hold Naruto's limp hand as Tsunade went avidly to work on him was undeniably gutting. He couldn't lose Naruto too.

He didn't dare take his eyes off Naruto now, mostly in fear of when he looked back that Naruto's chest wouldn't be moving anymore. But he could sense the hesitancy and nervousness that Tsunade possessed through the slight shake in her hands or the awkward stiffness of her body leaning over Naruto's. And just like that, Sasuke's fear snapped his little remaining patience.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM!" He screamed murderously, his face contorting into a vicious, snarling,  _afraid_  wild animal.

Tsunade didn't even flinch, however. Every ounce of focus and energy in her body being directed onto the unconscious blond.

"Uchiha, I need you to remain calm or I'll have to ask you to leave." She spoke composedly. "Naruto is in a coma."

Those words hit him as sharply as a kunai to the heart.

Naruto.

In a coma.

He didn't know what to do. Should he cry? Laugh? Feel relieved? Be afraid? Honestly all he wanted to do was hold his breath.

"What from?" He asked instead, the anticipation ripping him apart from the inside.

"Chakra depletion."

Sasuke's heart dropped to his stomach, but before it could reach its destination, he paused, perturbed. In many cases, chakra depletion would be a viable reason for someone falling into a coma, but for Naruto? No way. He had nearly infinite chakra, Sasuke knew that first hand. Besides it didn't make sense in the first place. Naruto had only made shadow clones in the clearing, and nothing overly complicated except a transformation. In their battle at the Final Valley, Sasuke knew as a fact that there was far more Naruto could do that just being drained by a few hundred shadow clones alone. The pieces of the puzzle didn't fit.

Unless something happened to Naruto as a result of their fight. Maybe he had injured Naruto beyond repair, maybe Sasuke was to blame for this after all. What happens if Naruto would never be where he used to be, could never achieve his dream... because of Sasuke?

The thought sent his heart into a crushing grip, feeling as though he could barely breathe because the pain in his chest was so intense. It felt like a crackling chidori through the chest, ripping his vital organs from inside like a sacrifice to the gods, and vaguely, he realized he was hyperventilating.

"Uchiha!" Tsunade's stern tone commanded him present, sharp and punctuating each syllable with force. Sasuke took a few shaky breaths, frantically calming himself down. "This'll only end badly if you end up going into cardiac arrest on top of everything else. Hold yourself together."

With one hand, Tsunade bit the flesh on her thumb, drawing blood and placing her hand on the ground by her feet. Her other hand remained on Naruto's stomach, still glowing green with chakra. With a poof of smoke rising from the ground, a white and blue coloured slug, about the size of a dog, appeared at her side.

"Lady Katsuyu, I need you to get a message to Kakashi and Sakura right away. To Sakura, I need her at the hospital immediately. And for Kakashi, that Naruto's in a coma and I'm still unsure of the reason. Uchiha is with me." As she spoke, a drop of sweat beaded off her brow and hung down on her chin. "Now please, go."

"Right away, Lady Tsunade." The slug replied and poofed away in a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke was fidgeting, which is odd, because Sasuke didn't think he'd ever fidgeted in his life. And yet here he was, an anxious, frustrated, terrified mess. Brought to his knees by the boy who meant so much to him. Sasuke held Naruto's limp hand tighter, the wound fabric around his fingertips feeling oddly seamless and natural, like real skin instead of its cotton counterpart. It was at this moment that Sasuke realized he'd never gotten to hold Naruto's hand before. Maybe at some point when they were younger, but never with any meaning behind it. He'd never kissed Naruto with that same meaning. Never gotten to tell him how much he means to Sasuke. How it was because of Naruto that Sasuke wants to keep living. That Naruto is the reason Sasuke lives at all.

Naruto was  _not_ going to die. He was too much of a stubborn idiot to give up just like that. Even in a coma and somewhere far off in dreamland, Sasuke was certain Naruto was fighting to get back to reality. Besides if Tsunade said it was just chakra depletion, then it couldn't be that bad. He would recover... right?

Sasuke hesitantly glanced up at Tsunade for half a moment, his eyes refusing to leave Naruto's body for too long. The woman was breathing heavily, like the exertion of healing Naruto had taken far more out of her than it had helped in the end. The mark was activated on her forehead, spreading black lines over her face and down her arms. And her expression was of pure, absolute frustration.

Sasuke's dark raven hair fell into his eyes, obscuring his face. He heard the shuffling of footsteps behind him as the hospital room door was thrown open.

"Naruto! Oh my god!" Sakura screeched as she threw herself across the room towards the blond. And when Sasuke turned to look up at her, eyes full to the brim with uncontrolled hatred and resentment, Sakura had the decency to shut the fuck up. But the thing Sasuke hated the most about her when she walked into the room, was that she was more focused on Sasuke than Naruto. Her wide eyes glancing at him every few seconds. There he could see the panic and embarrassment when Sasuke had glared at her in murderous rage.

She cleared her throat, turning to Tsunade after a moment. "What happened?"

"Sasuke found him, he's in a coma. Chakra depletion." Tsunade gritted out, like it was almost painful to speak through the healing efforts. "I need you to take over for a bit, I'm doing everything I can but his body is refusing treatment."

"Please, move aside, Lady Tsunade. You rest for a while." Her hands glowed with green energy and Tsunade nodded and slumped back into a chair tiredly in the corner of the room. Sakura activated her mark on her forehead, letting a larger supply of chakra to infuse into her hands and she hovered them over Naruto's chest.

"Spill it, Uchiha. What happened." Tsunade all but sneered at him. Sasuke tried so hard to put his mask in place, he tried so hard to make his voice sound even and for his body to remain emotionless and unreadable. But he couldn't do any of those things at all.

"Naruto was..." Sasuke took a shaky breath, remembering the vivid memories from earlier that day. "I was just..."

Tsunade sat up in her seat, her hands nearly crushing the armrests beneath her grip.

"Did you do this to him?" Her voice was low and menacing and Sasuke nearly ripped her heart from her chest for making that assumption. Sakura gasped and jumped from beside him.

Sasuke's voice hardened, anger swirling within him reaching out. His brows pinched harshly. His eyes wide and wild and visual prowess activated. He glared at the woman across the room.

"No." He growled.

Tsunade held his gaze, unwavering and strong, then she nodded her head a little.

"Fine." She finally said. "You can't expect me  _not_ to immediately blame you, though. You've been trying to destroy him for years." Tsunade spat viciously. Sasuke couldn't disagree with her. He  _had_ tried to kill Naruto, multiple times. But he was changed and Naruto had led him to his epiphany. He would never hurt him for the rest of his life, that was for certain.

"Tell me what happened... How can he be perfectly fine one moment to nearly dead in less than an hour. Because let me warn you, Uchiha, when you brought him in I wasn't convinced he was going to make it. That's how low his chakra had drained."

"He... He was fighting with shadow clones, then he passed out on the ground. That's all I saw."

"So you're saying he nearly died from making a few shadow clones?" Tsunade frowned, unconvinced. "That's preposterous. How many?"

"A few hundred or so."

"Ridiculous." Tsunade spat. She shook her head, resting her chin on a fist and glaring at the floor, lost deep in thought.

Sakura shifted nervously by Naruto's side, sweat beginning to bead on the back of her neck. Sasuke's grip in Naruto's hand tightened ever still. Then Tsunade was standing abruptly, nudging Sakura aside and shooing Sasuke away. When Sasuke refused to move, Tsunade glared at him.

"Let go or you won't have an arm to hold onto him with." She threatened. Sasuke remained for a moment then, deciding in Naruto's best interest, moved to allow Tsunade access to the blond's right hand.

The woman created a flurry of hand signs, finishing with placing her palm along the top of Naruto's forearm. Glowing white lines appeared, crisscrossing and curving along the entire expanse of Naruto's right arm, from fingertips to shoulder. Then as soon as the lines appeared, they vanished, and Tsunade began unravelling the bound fabric until a pasty white arm, in such contrast to Naruto's own tanned skin, was revealed.

Her hands glowed green as her palms ran down the length of his muscles, feeling for some unseeable entity underneath. And after a few painfully quiet minutes of this, her eyes widened as large as dinner plates, her body tensing and her hands stilling on a place around Naruto's wrist.

"It's a seal." Tsunade confirmed firmly, speaking to no one but the wall in front of her.

Sakura gasped and came to stand beside her, Sasuke looked repetitively between Naruto's lax face, Naruto's discoloured wrist, and Tsunade's frozen expression subsequently.

"A seal?" Sakura questioned. "You mean the one you put on the--"

"No." Tsunade gritted out. "This is from someone else."

"So then we covered it with the bandage and trapped it inside?" Sakura asked. "But then why didn't we notice it then?"

"I thought I felt that something was wrong. I'm such a fool for not checking it more thoroughly." Tsunade cursed herself and shook her head. "At first I thought I made a mistake with the sealing formula, that maybe this was my Grandfather's cells taking over Naruto's, like we'd originally feared. But I knew that couldn't be it, because while his cells may take energy, so do Naruto's." She nodded to herself, like talking it through was starting to make more sense.

Sasuke was still thoroughly confused. Naruto had the First Hokage's cells in him? Is that this new arm he has? Is this dangerous to Naruto somehow? The questions came faster than Sasuke's mouth had time to form them, and not soon enough because Tsunade was continuing.

"The seal I used has been passed down to me by my Grandmother, which is a strong seal of the Uzumaki clan. They were geniuses, and the logistics of the seal is for medical use; which is only to keep the body from destroying itself, not stealing chakra. That meant there had to be another, secondary seal draining his chakra located somewhere else. It was just dumb luck it happened to be on this particular arm."

"And this other chakra-draining seal? Can you release it, Lady Tsunade?" Sakura asked quietly.

Tsunade sighed. "It's a very strong seal, much stronger of a draining seal than I've ever seen. The reason we couldn't heal Naruto is actually because the seal is draining our chakra as well. Actually the only seal I know this strong would be of Uzumaki heritage. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of seals besides what was given to me." Her voice faded off as she spoke. Then she turned on her heel and made to leave the room.

"You're not going to fix him?" Sasuke snarled, but she'd already gone, reappearing after a moment holding a scroll large enough to blanket an entire body. And that's exactly what she did, unrolling it and laying it overtop of Naruto, covering the entirety of his torso and a portion of his legs. She read an inscription in the bottom corner, performing the hand signs it told her to weave. Then she placed her hand in the middle of the scroll, pushing chakra into the formula.

"Release." She stated. A white light glowed around Naruto's body starting from his chest and down his limbs to his toes and fingers. Sasuke felt panic rise up inside him once again.

"What is this?"

 _"Don't_ touch him." Tsunade warned and Sasuke found himself hovering just inches from the blond. 

The white light faded and Tsunade rolled the scroll back up and set it aside. Then she was touching Naruto again, running her hands along his right arm, then his left arm, then his right arm again. She let out a sigh of relief.

"W-What was that?" Sakura asked before the words could make it passed Sasuke's own lips.

"It was an unsealing formula my Grandfather passed down to me. It's strong enough to unseal a tailed-beast from a jinchuuriki. Luckily for Naruto, the tailed-beasts and tailed-beast chakra he holds inside him are with him willingly, so we didn't need to worry about them coming loose. I don't know what that seal was, and I wasn't sure how to release it. It's a good thing this seemed to do the trick." Tsunade huffed heavily as she sat back down in her chair.

"So... he's..." Sasuke tried forming the words but the effort turned to ash on his tongue.

"He'll be fine, now." Tsunade sighed to herself, then turned a smirk at Sasuke. "You seemed awfully concerned for a while there, Uchiha. Or was I just imagining it?"

Sasuke ignored her. Sakura flinched and blushed pink. He could feel her turning emerald eyes onto him worriedly, then she was facing Tsunade in the corner again.

"With the seal released now... this means Naruto just has to recover his chakra, right?" She asked her mentor.

Tsunade nodded tiredly. "Yes, the chakra's beginning to rebuild which means it'll just take time for his body to regain the energy it'd lost. His body put him into a coma as a natural defence to focus healing him internally, he should be waking up whenever his energy is high enough again."

"It seems I came just in time for all the fun to begin." Kakashi nodded solemnly to Tsunade and she snorted in response.

"Late as always, even when your most prized pupil is dying." Tsunade joked. Sakura stiffened. Sasuke didn't even turn his head. "He'll live, if you were curious."

Kakashi waved her off, surprisingly serious despite his earlier comment. "I came as soon as I could. I'm just glad to see he's finally stabilized."

"But Naruto will be fine now... He'll be okay..." Sakura peeped quietly, almost just to herself.

Tsunade answered all the same. "Yes. Unfortunately I'm not sure how long that'll take. He usually is pretty fast at recovering from things, but his chakra levels were so low normal people would have been long dead by now." Tsunade commented helpfully. "The only thing we can do now for him is try to speed up his recovery process further with medical ninjutsu." 

Sakura nodded in understanding and moved back to Naruto's side, running her hands over the blond's body with a soft green glow of chakra.

"It's a miracle he's alive." Sakura lamented.

"Do I get to hear the full story now?" Kakashi appealed.

Tsunade mostly told him. About the secondary seal and Naruto's condition. About Sasuke bringing Naruto to her, claiming it'd only been a few hundred shadow clones that had done him in. And when she was finished, Kakashi not uttering a word during the entire time, the Hokage turned towards Sasuke's hunched back.

"Sasuke." Kakashi began. "It's time for our meeting. Lady Tsunade, if you don't mind, may we borrow your office for a little while?"

Tsunade huffed and waved her hand dismissively at the white haired man, her own form of consent.

"Oh and afterwards we can talk about this mission request you've put in... it's certainly interesting to say the least." The only hint at his ambiguity was the brief glance at Sasuke. Tsunade grumbled out something sarcastic, then Kakashi was turning back to Sasuke with an emotionless smile hidden beneath his mask. "Come, Sasuke."

When they were finally alone in the stillness of Tsunade's messy office, Kakashi perched in Tsunade's chair and Sasuke sitting stiffly across from him, Kakashi visibly relaxed with a deep sigh.

"I know you love him." Were the first words Kakashi spoke. Sasuke, as uncontrollable as his emotions were today, blushed a soft pink. Heat rose in his cheeks and burned the tips of his ears. He didn't dare look Kakashi in the eye in fear of showing the man the truth behind his one and only weakness. "I know a lot more about you than you probably think I know."

Sasuke smirked, but his eyes remained trained on the table top. "I'll let you believe that for now." Sasuke replied, intentionally retaining ambiguity. Kakashi only quirked an eyebrow.

"You and I... We're a lot more similar than you seem to think Sasuke." Kakashi started and Sasuke scowled. "I've been where you've been, and thought what you think. I'd even killed for sport more than for justice at one point in my life." Kakashi added. It was only then that he'd finally caught Sasuke's attention, even if Sasuke himself still refused to show any physical evidence that it had. He remained still, his cold mask plastered on. "I know this is hard for you... being back in the village. And especially today with all this drama going on with Naruto... I'm sorry you had to see all that. I just want you to know that you're not alone here."

Sasuke refused to look him in the eye, his barriers still firmly in place. Was Kakashi  _pitying_ him? Like a lost child or god forbid it,  _a younger brother?_ It irritated Sasuke more than it should have. He didn't need help, and he certainly didn't need Kakashi's pity.

"And since I know you so well, I also have a hunch that you know more about Naruto's story than you're letting on." Kakashi's gloves hands clasped in front of his face. "For Naruto's safety, I need to know every detail. Do you understand?"

Instead of showing any indication of acknowledgement, Sasuke just jumped right into the story, starting from when he'd woken up in the morning.

It had been a beautiful morning, one that his mother would have chided Sasuke for for getting up too early with Itachi. They used to have a favourite training spot in the woods when they were younger, a place where Itachi would practice his shuriken jutsu in peace and Sasuke would watch in awe from afar, both brothers able to entertain themselves for hours on end. These days always started early since Itachi had to go to school, and Sasuke was not always... the  _quietest_ child in the mornings.

But this morning had been beautiful. He'd woken up before dawn, watching as a mixture of vibrant, cheerful orange and yellow set the sky aflame. He headed out early, out to the woods above Hokage Rock where he experimented with shuriken jutsu with only one arm, finding it embarrassingly more challenging than he'd originally thought.

Afterwards, by midmorning, his frustration and boredom led him back into town, being careful to stay along the rooftops. He wasn't scared of the townspeople, per say, and their words the day before hadn't hurt if he just ignored them anyways, but he'd subconsciously avoided going down to street level altogether. Something Sasuke was sure not to reiterate to Kakashi now for the sake of his Uchiha pride.

He'd told Kakashi about seeing Naruto sprinting across the rooftops, a seemingly distressing expression pasted so blatantly on his expressive face. And while it only took Sasuke a moment to tell Kakashi about all this, while it happened it lasted a lifetime. Sasuke hadn't seen Naruto in three weeks. Had worried about him, sure. Had thought about him? Wholeheartedly. The blond was looking well and well-rested. And surprisingly, adorned with a new arm which was a sickly, almost white pale colour. Sasuke had studied him as Naruto rushed to the aid of an elderly man, appearing a few minutes later from an alleyway looking spooked but unharmed. Then he made his way to the hospital.

Sasuke told Kakashi about the kiss with Sakura, the fight with his shadow clones, and eventually, as entertained as he was sitting high up in the branches of the trees, that Sasuke decided to go down and give the shadow clones a fighting chance. But he didn't get to, because the moment Sasuke got to the ground, Naruto was retching at his feet. Convulsing and shaking so violently Sasuke knew in an instant that something had gone horribly wrong. Then he brought an unconscious Naruto to the hospital and the rest is history.

When he was finished, Kakashi just nodded at him a few times in silence. And when he finally spoke it wasn't the words Sasuke wanted to hear.

"Sasuke, don't go looking for whoever did this to Naruto. He wouldn't want that."

The words cut deep because he knew they were true. If Naruto had been awake and well right now, he'd have told Sasuke to stay. But it was against Sasuke's nature not to, he was an avenger, and would always be an avenger. And this person had tried to kill Naruto, which by Sasuke's judgement, is unforgivable.

"It was that old man from the alleyway, I know it was." Sasuke ignored Kakashi's warning.

"And if it was he could very well be waiting for this exact moment to happen. For us to let our guard down while Naruto is immobile and unprotected." Kakashi argued. "How devastated would you be to find Naruto dead in the hospital room while you were out looking for the perp. Think about it Sasuke."

Sasuke steamed, irritated. He knew Kakashi was right, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it. Whoever had done this either hadn't realized Naruto wouldn't die immediately from the chakra-draining seal, or they had realized it and used that to their advantage. Assassination was much easier when your target wasn't about to fight back, at any rate.

"Fine." Sasuke agreed, finally meeting Kakashi's gaze for the first time. "But I will stay with Naruto. If there's going to be a fight, I want to make sure the job gets done. I can't trust anyone else to do that."

Kakashi grinned under his mask, his eyes crinkling around the edges as they curved upwards.

"I agree, it has to be you."

 

*

 

It was much later before Sasuke was finally alone with Naruto. The sun had set and deep shadows were cast into the room from the small window in the corner. And just as he was beginning to think he finally had some peace and quiet, the hospital room door slid open. The person it revealed was someone Sasuke had honestly never thought he'd see again.

"Hey, Sasuke." Iruka smiled as he hesitantly stepped into the room and approached the bed. But his smile had no warmth to it, if anything he seemed almost nervous or  _scared_ of Sasuke, a look that Sasuke had been getting more used to as of late. Iruka's smile was borderline cold. Tired. Wary. Curious. Sasuke realized his rinnegan was reading his old sensei like a book and he abruptly turned his attention back to the unconscious blond without a word.

Iruka padded over softly, pulling up a seat to plant himself down beside Naruto. Iruka clasped his hand in the blond's and Sasuke bristled at the contact. But Iruka didn't back down, in fact, he did the opposite. With his other hand he tucked the blankets up higher around Naruto's chin, and then proceeded to plant a kiss on his forehead.

It was a few minutes later, Iruka's thumb moving soothingly across the back of Naruto's hand, the room in complete silence other than the sound of Naruto's breathing.

"You really love him. Don't you." Iruka pondered while watching Naruto's sleeping face. Sasuke stiffened. First Kakashi and now Iruka? Was he really that easy to read or were those two in on it together.

Sasuke refrained from answering, deciding silence was his ally right now.

"I can see it in your eyes when you look at him." Iruka was continuing. "You've always been so stoic... but that was always the one thing I could see clearly when you looked at his face." Sasuke turned his gaze then, finding Iruka watching him. His dark eyes wide and searching. "It still is." He concluded.

Sasuke looked back at Naruto to hide the blush that coloured his cheeks.

"Does he know?" Sasuke asked after a moment and Iruka hummed out a sigh, his thumb still drawing circles along the back of Naruto's hand.

"I'm not sure..." Iruka replied warmly. When Sasuke looked over at him, he could see the smile on Iruka's face as he gazed down at the blond was completely warm and genuine, filled with a love that can only be described as fatherly. "I mean... he  _has_ always been pretty dense about those things."

Naruto and himself, both, apparently.

His sensei chuckled lightly. Sasuke couldn't help the small smile that wormed its way onto his lips at the irony of it all.

"But..." Iruka paused, sounding more and more like the teacher he remembered from all those years ago at the academy. "I know you're important to him. He... he never gave up on you. He always talked about bringing you home... Even when you..."

Sasuke knew what he did. He knew what leaving the village did to Naruto. He knew, and back then he hadn't cared. Because back then, his denial to realize his true feelings led him to believe Naruto was just a pest that needed to be put in its place. An annoyance that could be dealt with whenever the pestering continued for too long. And time and time again, when presented with ample opportunity to cut Naruto down swiftly and efficiently, he had always hesitated. Finding himself drawn to insulting Naruto for his lack of skill rather than eliminating him once and for all. Because deep down inside Sasuke, he knew that had never truly been possible. He would never be the one to kill Naruto. And Naruto would never be the one to kill him. While both lived, both would thrive in accordance to each other. If one was stronger, the other would be there to match. There was no winner and loser between Sasuke and Naruto, only equals.

He knew Naruto chased him, pleaded for him, and supported him even with all the wrongs Sasuke had committed. Even with his bridges burned and his blade stained red, Naruto never gave up on him. It was something that over the years, when Sasuke's denial of his feelings for Naruto could no longer be contained, that the niggling thought drove itself into his brain that maybe, just maybe, Naruto was doing all this because he loved Sasuke back. That they had dealt with their love in different ways and now Sasuke was forced to pay for his mistakes by relinquishing himself completely to Naruto, knowing that he will be hurt in the process. Knowing that if he was wrong, that if Naruto had never loved him and he'd wandered too close to the flame, that he'd be burned.

"You broke his heart." Iruka stammered out after a moment. "You meant everything to him, and you broke his heart."

Sasuke felt his breath pause as his blood ran cold in his veins. He'd always known, he'd seen it in Naruto's eyes when they fought. Heard it in his voice when they spoke. But hearing it aloud as if in literal confirmation of his sin, by someone who cares very deeply for Naruto no less, stung harder than he ever could've imagined.

"It's up to him now whether he wants to forgive you for that or not. God knows no one can force him to do anything." Iruka chuckled a little sadly, a little lovingly. It pained Sasuke to hear it. "Although from you being here and not dead in your final battle, I wonder if he's already come to a conclusion." Iruka added thoughtfully.

They sat in tense silence for another length of time until Iruka arose with a sigh, planting a final kiss to Naruto's head and a squeeze to his hand, then making for the door.

"Sasuke." Iruka called softly over his shoulder pausing with his hand on the doorframe. "I can trust you to protect him... can't I?"

Sasuke gulped. Sasuke would never let Naruto get hurt again. He'd never be the one to hurt him again. He'd never lose his trust again.

Naruto had pulled Sasuke from the shadows that bound him to hatred and contempt and illusion. Naruto had shown him the truth and never, not once, had he ever strayed from his path in wanting to help Sasuke. His conviction and duty to peace has shaped him in being who he was today, the embodiment of all things good and right. Once upon a time Sasuke may have believed he understood the true path to peace, but now on reflection, Sasuke realized just how wrong he was. Naruto was truly the key to a brighter future. For the world, and for Sasuke. 

Sasuke may have broken Naruto's heart once, but he'd be damned if he didn't try to put it back together piece by piece, no matter how painful or how long it took.

"With my life." He replied.

Iruka levelled him with his gaze. The wariness that had shone through those eyes before overtaken by a cold, hard seriousness that made it difficult for Sasuke to look away. Iruka didn't move for a few silent moments, only searching Sasuke for reason to not believe his claim. Then he finally spoke.

"Can you promise that?" His sensei asked firmly.

Sasuke stiffened, knowing even without a promise to bind him to it Sasuke would have done it without hesitation.

"I promise."

Sasuke knew Iruka didn't have any reason to believe the validity of his words, and he could see the swirling emotions forming in Iruka's expressive eyes the moment the words left his mouth. Yet, instead of disregarding Sasuke, Iruka just nodded firmly, placing his trust in Sasuke completely. And Sasuke had never felt more terrified of the man than in that moment.

 

*

 

Tsunade left in the middle of the night, hoping to supply cover from unwanted eyes as she made her way from the village. Shizune accompanied her, as well as four ANBU to escort them. When they'd finally landed on the forest floor at their destination, Tsunade took a minute to wipe the sweat from her brow and adjust her hair that was sticking irritatingly to her skin.

She was exhausted, most of her chakra being sapped by Naruto's seal only a few hours earlier. Not to mention she was fifty-something and bounding through the forest at breakneck speeds.

The sun had risen through the trees, casting an orange glow across the forest floor and the stoney underground entrance the group cautiously stepped towards. It had weeds pushing through between the slabs of stone, looking more like uncovered ancient ruins than a livable lair. Although, perhaps that was entirely intentional. The ANBU guards carefully led them inside, and Yamato, the squad's captain, made silent signals to the others, all of them spreading out as they moved down the leaky hallway within. The inside was narrow and lit by torches on the walls. Mold and cobwebs hung in the seams by the roof, and the consistent dripping of water sounded far off in the darkness. After what seemed like an excessive length of walking, the group was faced with a large set of wooden doors, already open and inviting into the inner room. The inside of the room, however, was less inviting. In the middle was a large table cluttered with an assortment of sharp, metallic instruments. There was a glass cabinet on one wall that contained a multitude of various human body parts. Fingers, teeth, human skulls and jars of hair. A large snakeskin, perhaps fifteen feet long, was nailed to the far wall.

The only indication that they weren't alone was the cackling chuckle let out from behind them. Orochimaru, as pale and monstrous as ever, licked his lips as he casually leaned against the doorframe. Immediately the ANBU were in defensive stances surrounding Tsunade, but when the blonde woman held up a hand, Yamato called them off.

"We're here for intel, Orochimaru. Please cooperate with us." Tsunade exacted. Orochimaru simply blinked at her words.

"It's so good to see you as well, Princess Tsunade." He hissed. "Still brutally blunt and to the point as usual I see. Well, I suppose some things never change." His unnatural yellow eyes slithered over the other occupants of the room, only settling back on Tsunade after a brief moment. "Although from what I've heard, you're no longer the Hokage. So tell me, what does Kakashi Hatake want with me this time, hm?"

"If you're still so interested in Leaf village affairs then you shouldn't have abandoned us in the first place. You don't need the full story, I came here looking for something and I intend to find it." Tsunade snapped ferociously and Orochimaru smiled a little wider.

"Very well. I'll play along since it seems I've been given no other choice."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"I'm looking for Madara Uchiha's body." She said.

Orochimaru stiffened, his eyes suddenly hard. Then pulling from the stiff edges of his mouth grew a wicked smile. Tsunade bristled.

"Yes, that one is a mystery, isn't it."

She let out a harsh sigh, nostrils flaring as she did so.

"Just tell me what you know, Orochimaru."

"I'm afraid I don't know where his body is, unfortunately." He hissed with mirth. "The last time I saw it was when he came back to life during the war. I searched tirelessly for it afterwards, but I couldn't seem to find anything. Not even a speck of dried blood."

Tsunade frowned, it was just as they had feared. Someone had gotten to Madara's body before they could. And if Orochimaru didn't have it, then the question was: where was it? 

"If I may ask..." Orochimaru pushed himself from the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you require Madara Uchiha's body simply for security purposes, or for a more specific reason?" He smirked. "I may help you find it, depending on your answer."

Tsunade glared at him sternly. He was a clever one, she'd always have admitted that. Even when they were children the Third Hokage always praised Orochimaru on his adept intellect. But still, she would have never guessed he'd have deducted her motives from this short of an exchange alone.

It was precisely his sharp intellect and obsession with the Uchiha's that Tsunade suggested to Kakashi that she partake on this mission personally. Tsunade knew Orochimaru better than many others did, having grown up with him. That didn't mean she liked him, and it certainly didn't mean she respected him. She was here because she knew others would be swayed by his words unlike herself, and this mission was important. Securing Madara's body was in the greater interest of the world, the war had been proof in itself how even the name alone was powerful enough to draw mass fear. Cleaning up from the old shinobi world's mistakes is the older generation's burden to bear, so the younger generations can live in a world different from the time they lived in.

And although the main reason of this mission was to secure Madara's body, it was also for another more selfish purpose as well. She'd consulted Kakashi about giving Sasuke a new arm cultivated from the cells of her Grandfather, the First Hokage, but both agreed the mixing of Senju and Uchiha blood was a risk they couldn't take, especially in an uncontrollable shinobi like Sasuke. Kakashi had suggested using cells more similar to Sasuke's, an ancestor of Sasuke's powerful enough to withhold the tremendous volume of chakra inside his body. And who other could match Sasuke in strength than his incarnate, Madara Uchiha.

It seemed Orochimaru had already figured all this out however, despite being unprivileged to know the secrets behind Ashura and Indra's reincarnation cycle. Tsunade blamed it on his absurd obsession with Sasuke and the rest of the Uchiha, surmising that part of the reason the Leaf village was seeking out Madara's body was to fuse a piece of it onto Sasuke.

Thinking back on all of it now, Tsunade thought this was a really bad idea after all.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that, my mission by the Hokage was to retrieve the body and that was all."

Orochimaru chuckled and sighed. "You're still a terrible liar, Tsunade. But if you claim you don't know, then I'll just have to go to the source myself. Tell me, is Kakashi Hatake still single? I'm sure he'd be much more willing to talk if I--"

"That is enough." Tsunade growled lowly. "You disgust me. After all the mercy the Hokage's shown you, I can't believe you'd imply something so vulgar."

He smirked. "Well, I never have been one to care how others felt about my own... desires." His eyes glinted dangerously. "How is my Sasuke these days? He's always welcome back with me if he ever feels lost back in Konoha. And if you don't find Madara's body soon, someone might be tempted to steal Sasuke away in his vulnerable state. I'm sure he can't fight as well with only one arm."

Tsunade shook her head disbelievingly. She didn't care much for the Uchiha, but even the most opposed could agree: Orochimaru was a sick fuck.

He grinned to himself for a while, the distant look in his eyes remaining even when Tsunade barked at him to stop.

"How about we strike a deal." He crooned. "I'll tell you what I know, and you give Sasuke back to me. That seems like a fair trade, yes? I'm sure you dislike him being there in the first place, seeing as you've taken after Lord Second so closely."

And now he was calling her a racist. Of course. She shouldn't have expected Orochimaru to 'play along' as he called it so easily.

Tsunade smirked. "You're right, I don't particularly like the Uchiha, and most people in the village would agree that he's not welcome there." Her eyes hardened as she spoke. Sadistic, murderous intent dripping from her mouth like blood. "And it's precisely that reason that you'll give me the information I need, seeing as right now we hold all the cards. Sasuke's trapped and held in a foreign place surrounded by people who hate him, don't think that he's not any more of a prisoner as you would be if the Hokage didn't decide on pardoning you." At Orochimaru's brief pause, Tsunade smiled demonically, knowing she'd bested him finally. "If you're so keen on striking a deal, then fine. You tell me what I want to know, and we'll keep Sasuke alive for the time being."

Orochimaru's face fell blank as he considered her words.

"Kabuto and I had collected Madara Uchiha's body for our own experiments, right before the time I died, in fact. I assume that's how Kabuto reanimated him for the war." He confessed. "But afterwards... I'm not entirely certain. One theory I have is that Kabuto himself took back the body, but obviously I've not heard anything from him after his betrayal to me that is." Orochimaru frowned. "Another theory is that someone else must have taken it." He smirked as Tsunade levelled him with an irritated gaze. "Oh, I don't mean just  _anyone_ , though. No, as hard as it is for you to believe, Madara and the Akatsuki aren't the only ones who have ever searched for justice with... inhumane methods to get them there."

"So you're telling me a faceless nobody may have taken Madara's body because they saw the opportunity laying there?" Tsunade scoffed, skepticism fuming off of her in waves. "That's ridiculous. If someone truly had done that they would've made a power play while the allied nations are still weak and recovering. If they're not a complete idiot, of course. We would've heard about this by now."

"Ah but is it not also wise to use Madara's body as a bargaining chip when the time comes? Perhaps they had no use for his immense power if they can play it off on intuition alone."

"But is it not also in human nature to flaunt power when you've got access to it?" Tsunade echoed with a frown. "We've seen it time and time again, power breeds acknowledgment, and acknowledgment breeds respect. And no matter where on the spectrum of good and bad they fall into, fear can always cause disturbances. Conflict and war arise, and in the end, power always wins. This has always been the way of the past, we should know better than anyone." Tsunade spat furiously. "And now we've all been given an out from this violent cycle by Naruto. Why would you ever think people would still follow that same path when there is a clear and simple way to peace as it is now?"

Orochimaru nodded a little in agreement, and the gesture would have seemed almost comforting if not for the twisted smile curling his lips.

"Where there is light in this world, there is also darkness. Our world may look at peace to you, but someone, somewhere, is still suffering. There has never been, and never will be, such thing as true peace." He imparted calmly. "Such naivety has brought many wars to an end, and many more into existence. Believing that all conflict can end because of the judgement of one boy is undeniably far-fetched, especially considering the sheer amount of people who live in this world. Naruto Uzumaki may have helped hundreds, or even thousands. He may have saved the world from total destruction and convinced his enemies that it was not too late to turn back. But  _think_ , Tsunade, think of all the others he's never met. Think of all the others who live far away, unaffected by his deeds and continuing in living their lives as normal, unknowingly being in immediate danger like at the end of the war. Some may have even come to resent his fame, his fortune. Some who may have never had the opportunities or resources to pull themselves back on their own two feet like Naruto did. And it is for that exact reason, that no matter how sincerely you believe Naruto has created a more peaceful world, you could never be more wrong."

At his words, Tsunade felt her patience snap. She lunged forward, gripping Orochimaru by the neck and held his body off the floor.

Deep down, she knew he was right. They were living under a false assumption of peace, but peace was never lasting. At some point, people would forget about the devastation of the war. They would forget about Naruto's deeds and forget about the importance the peace brought them. People always fell victim to their darkest emotions when they felt no one else wanted the same. It was simply in human nature to be greedy, to encourage wrath upon those who oppose them. To seek vengeance for wrongs committed against them and seek peace in their own manner, whatever that may be to someone. It could be through war, through absolute power, or like in Naruto's case, through love and respect for one another. It didn't matter. In this lifetime or in one in the future where Naruto wasn't around to withhold this fragile peace, eventually the cycle would continue as it always had, which ultimately, was deeply heartbreaking to comprehend.

She set Orochimaru back on the ground. He wrung a hand around his neck, willing the red marks from her rage away.

"Do you have any ideas about who specifically could've taken Madara's body?" Tsunade asked, quieter than before. Yamato, Shizune and the ANBU began to sense her resignation and shuffled anxiously behind her.

Orochimaru smirked, looking down on her.

"In fact, I do." He said. "I've heard rumours, here and there, even before I died if you can believe it. It seems as though this person didn't seek the illusional godly fame that Madara and so many others in the past have, though. For this person has yet to kill another."

"If they haven't killed anyone, then how do you know they exist?"

Orochimaru's eyes glimmered, pride and awe and, most of all, _respect_ shone through like daylight, nearly blinding Tsunade with sheer emotion alone. It was then that Tsunade realized, if someone as devious and manipulative and smart as Orochimaru was this intrigued by an unknown person, then perhaps she should take his assumption more seriously.

"This is the power play you were speaking of earlier, Tsunade. My, my, you really have lost your touch, haven't you." He teased. "Whoever this is has been at it for years, slowly building fear among the masses. Compared to someone like Madara, who uses their power to exert dominance over others so effortlessly, this person has been doing it gradually. Which in some ways is all the more terrifying."

"And you think this... this..." Tsunade scrambled for words, frustrating herself that she wasn't sure what to call them. "... this person is the one who took Madara's body?"

"I only suggest the option since they've proven the intellect to do so."

"Okay, so you don't think they have it?"

Orochimaru sighed tiredly. "I'm only warning you to be wary of his presence, as mysterious and unknown as that may be. No one knows exactly where he is at once, many believe he doesn't exist at all. And  _some_ ," He looked pointedly at Tsunade and the rest of the group behind her, "meaning many, don't even know he's a threat in the first place. If you're always looking forward, sometimes its easy to forget to look behind you as well. Before you or I or anyone else knows it, unknown people like this will become the next Madara's."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "And his jutsu? What does he do that makes him so worthy of my acknowledgment?"

Orochimaru chuckled, an eery high pitched cackle that echoed off the tight walls of the room.

"That  _is_ the question, now isn't it." He answered. "Didn't you say that power breeds acknowledgment? Well then, I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"But why would people be so afraid of him if they didn't know what he does? That's not a feasible explanation for your assumption that he'll rise in power eventually."

"Ah, but Tsunade, that is precisely what makes him so terrifying in the first place. An unknown entity with unknown jutsu gradually but simultaneously spreading his mark evenly across the world is nothing to push aside. As for his jutsu, no one really knows. Without a face to pin it on, people have begun to think they're going insane. One minute they're in one place, and the next in a completely different town. Months pass by without the victims realizing it. It truly is a troublesome predicament."

"Perhaps it's an organization like the Akatsuki, then." Tsunade supplied but Orochimaru shook his head.

"That's highly unlikely given the irrefutable similarities between separate cases, but not an option to ignore either." Orochimaru sneered predatorily making Tsunade tense a bit at the sight. "But whatever it is, it's coming. I'd watch your back, Tsunade, because peace never lasts for long. And once they decide to make their move, I'm not convinced even all the power and influence of Naruto Uzumaki can stop them."

 

 

 


	4. Turmoil

 

The world was dark as Naruto walked through it. Never-ending and forever empty. With nothing but his thoughts and the soft click of his feet to accompany him. He thought he could hear noise, the soft hum of voices too far away to make out specific words. They bounced around him tauntingly, forcing him to continue walking even if he never believed he'd find the source. Time passed slowly.

Then a glimmer in the darkness alerted him. A shift of colour forming a taller, leaner figure materializing as Naruto approached. The shadows, wispy and sinister, drifted together to form pale skin, black spiky hair, and mismatched onyx and rinnegan eyes. A firm chest with muscles strung beneath impossibly unblemished skin like a marble statue, something to be worshipped and admired. The figure held a hand out, gesturing for Naruto to come forwards. But as he did so the figure was also coming more into focus, practically glowing as Naruto realized he was looking at the naked body of his best friend. Naruto paused, and Sasuke frowned.

"Sasuke... I..." Naruto started. He knew he should avert his gaze, but something was drawing him like a magnet to the raven. Something heart wrenching and pain inducing, like his very soul was warning him not to give into Sasuke's beauty. Sasuke dropped his hand.

Another shift in the darkness was forming now. A shorter, curvier figure that came to stand beside Sasuke. A woman. Pale and soft. With pink hair and large eyes.

With a smirk resting on his lips, Sasuke turned his eyes on the woman in front of him, two hands carding into her hair as he pressed his lips hungrily to hers. They kissed slowly but firmly, with a passion that couldn't be described as anything but unadulterated  _want_. His hands shifted to her hips, drawing their bodies flush together. His grip possessive, inciting a high whine and a gasp.

Naruto wanted him to stop, and he had no idea why. Why did his anger take control of him like this? To the point where it almost pained him to watch Sasuke kiss another. And just for a fleeting moment,  _he_ wanted to be the one in that woman's place.  _He_ wanted to be kissed and looked at and wanted by Sasuke like he was looking at that woman now.  _He_ wanted Sasuke to notice him, to treat him like he  _mattered_ as he had so rarely done in the past.

As he thought that, fists clenching by his sides, about to take the first step over to throw the woman off Sasuke's chest, Sasuke himself paused to chuckle colourlessly as he turned coldly on Naruto, as though reading his very thoughts.

"Why do you keep involving yourself with me." Sasuke growled, a warning.

Naruto opened his mouth, the words coming out on instinct.

"Cause you're my friend!"

"Friend? _Friend?"_ Sasuke spat, his visual prowess burning holes right through Naruto's skin. "Someone as worthless as you doesn't _deserve_ to call me that. After all, you let me leave in the first place. You're too weak, you couldn't save me." Sasuke's smirk replaced the scowl, his eyes turning warmly back onto the woman as he leaned into her. His words coming out as a whisper against her cheek, but somehow loud enough for Naruto to hear, as though he were in the woman's place and not standing so far away. "You could _never_ save me."

"Sasuke!" Naruto called, his voice growing thick with emotion. He tried moving his feet, but they remained firmly in place. "Sasuke, wait--!"

But as Sasuke leaned back in for another kiss, so deeply intimate and emotional it felt like a punch to the gut for Naruto, the ground dropped out from beneath him. He yelled, making a grab for Sasuke but fell regardless as the darkness consumed him once again.

 

*

 

"Naruto?" He heard. Low and smooth and dim in his grogginess. A familiar sound. "Sakura... he's..."

It was an out of body experience, feeling like the voices he heard scrambling around him were far far away. He couldn't tell if he was still dreaming or not, but this seemed too close on the cusp of reality to think anything otherwise.

"Naruto! Oh my god..." A higher voice answered the first. The shuffling sound as footsteps drew nearer. He groaned lowly, sounding like a whine as he desperately tried to claw his way back to consciousness.

"Naruto?" He heard the first voice again, but it was morphing this time, turning into something less familiar than he had first connected it to. Still masculine, but different. "Sakura? Is he..."

"I think so... Can you send word to Kakashi-sensei please?"

"Of course."

Naruto felt the pressure of a hand on his cheek and he groaned, trying to wake himself up from the warmth of the contact. His limbs were made of lead, his eyelids even heavier. He opened his mouth, the uncomfortable feeling of his tongue as dry and foreign as a brick making him abruptly shut it again.

But Naruto was stubborn, damn it! He didn't give up just because his body sent belligerent protests, and it certainly didn't help that his confusion was making him anxious. Where was he? What was going on? How can he get out of here? Those questions rose to the forefront of his brain, alarming him of potential danger like a frightened animal trapped in a cage.

He opened his eyes. Blinded, at first, by the blazing intensity of the sun shining through the small window in the corner. He blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of his surroundings, noticing the recognizable pink hair of Sakura beside him. Her face was pinched in concentration as her glowing green hands ran up and down the length of his chest. Her emerald eyes widened when she noticed Naruto looking at her, her mouth falling open in a little 'o' shape and her hands ceased their movement.

Then she was smiling, full of relief and joy, and Naruto tried his best to return the gesture.

"Welcome back, knucklehead." She said fondly, shifting to take a seat next to his bed. Her voice was laced with traces of amusement as she teased him. "You sure took your time."

Naruto grinned, trying to chuckle back at her but finding his voice deep and thick with dry stickiness. He cleared his throat, finding the results not much better after.

"How long was I out?" He croaked.

"Three days." Sakura answered simply, watching with glee as Naruto's surprise was expressed.

"Naruto?" It was the deeper voice from earlier, now belonging to the worried face of Iruka standing in the doorway.

Naruto smiled at him too as he came towards the bed.

"We were so worried about you, thank god." His sensei fretted. "Are you okay? Are you hurting anywhere?"

He shook his head. "I'm fine, just needed a little nap, y'know." Naruto furrowed his brow, puzzled. "Er... why was I napping in the first place anyway?"

"You were in a coma. You made everyone so scared, Naruto." Sakura scolded lightly, her voice quieting as the smile returned. "It was chakra depletion. You had some strange seal on your arm that was draining your chakra, we have no idea what it was, we're just glad you... that it didn't..."

Naruto worried his lip as he saw tears well up in Sakura's waterline. Why was Sakura crying? Iruka placed his hand over Naruto's.

"We're just happy you're awake, is all." Iruka comforted. "Three days is... much sooner than we expected. You're recovering really well."

"Where's everyone else..." He asked quietly, the emptiness of the hospital room feeling lonely like the never-ending darkness of his dream had been.

"Well... we weren't sure when you were going to wake up." Sakura provided solemnly. "But everyone's been in to see you regularly, see for yourself." She gestured to a table across the room that was filled with a wide assortment of colourful bouquets and cards. "The whole village has been in to see you. Ino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Hinata... oh! Even Gaara made a personal trip out here to send flowers, so thoughtful, right? It just goes to show how important you are to everyone, I guess."

Iruka chuckled under his breath, shaking his head a little as he did so. Naruto was in a state of perpetual shock.

"Everyone... came?"

Because if Sakura said everyone, that must mean even...

She nodded with a little laugh, not noticing the underlying question Naruto posed. "And it'll probably just get even busier in here once word gets out you're awake. Iruka-sensei just sent for Kakashi-sensei, so he'll be here soon hopefully. Although knowing him..." She looked amusedly at Iruka who snorted indignantly.

If everyone came, that must mean even Sasuke came to visit him. Although would he? Did he even care enough to visit? Naruto didn't know. He  _did_ know the Sasuke from his dream was getting into his head. That his disregard and frustration and irritation with Naruto hit a little too close to home. That it reminded him of the things the real Sasuke had said to him before, reminded him that Sasuke's attention has never been focused solely on him. That that very thought was too ludicrous to ever become a reality. Maybe Sasuke hadn't come to see him at all.

Sakura's sigh snapped him back to the present with a sheepish grin.

"Let's do a little checkup, shall we?" She prodded. But before Naruto could answer, she was already running her hands over his body. The muscles in his arms moved under the pressure of her fingers, and his face turned pink when she did the same along his chest and abdomen. After checking his pulse, taking some blood, and shining a light in his eyes, she concluded that he was recovering nicely, especially since they'd assumed he'd be out for longer than only three days. The chakra was already replenishing itself and he'd be good to leave the hospital as soon as he can weight bear, which should be within the next couple of days, at any rate.

They were joined by Kakashi eventually, who planted a masked kiss on Iruka before even acknowledging Naruto was there, which caused for a little whining from the blond and Iruka, for two different reasons.

"Oh?" Kakashi turned to Naruto, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Did you want a kiss too?"

"EUGH!" Naruto all but screamed causing Sakura and Iruka to erupt into a fit of laughter.

He'd learnt about all he'd missed over the last few days, including Lady Tsunade already having left on a mission.

"You let an old granny out on an s-rank mission but  _I'm_ not even allowed to leave the village?!" Naruto looked accusingly at Kakashi. "What kind of a monster  _are_ you!"

"The fun kind." Kakashi answered. "Naruto, we've talked about this. You're role to play is here for now, I'm sorry but that's just the way things need to be."

"But--"

"Naruto." Iruka warned and Naruto stopped complaining with a sigh.

"It's okay, you can hang out with me if you want, I'm at the hospital all day anyways." Sakura suggested. "Besides, it'd be boring in the village without you."

"Sakura's right, Naruto, there're other things to do than just fighting. Plus you should be resting after the war, there's no need for you to put yourself in danger again." Iruka added.

Naruto was closing his eyes again, feeling suddenly exhausted even after being asleep for so long already.

Kakashi, seeming to take this as their cue to leave, clasped Iruka's hand pulling the brunette to his feet.

"Well, Naruto if you don't mind, I'll be stealing Iruka away for a while. I have some very specific needs that require his... expertise." He grinned and Iruka batted him on the shoulder, his face bright red. "You get some rest now."

Naruto's eyes were instantly open. "You perv!" He yelled as Kakashi began leaving the room. "I don't need updates on your sex life, y'know!"

But right before Kakashi and Iruka left, the Hokage looked back at Naruto evenly, his expression unreadable. Then a smile was quirking under his mask and he threw a wink at the fuming blond. The door slid shut behind them, but not before Iruka could call out a brief farewell.

Sakura turned to Naruto, her face flushed pink to match her hair. "Are they...?"

Naruto sneered at the door. "Yeah. I was surprised too, actually."

Sakura still seemed in shock. "I thought he was just teasing Iruka-sensei with that kiss... you know what Kakashi-sensei's like... But they're like, a couple." She stated, but it was more of a question. "And... speaking of kisses... I'm sorry I ran away on you, you know, before all of  _this_ happened." She gestured vaguely to Naruto's limp body. "I know you didn't mean to kiss me, it just happened, I've just been so confused because of--"

"I get it." Naruto stated firmly, his eyes locked on Sakura and conviction in his voice. "It was an accident, don't feel sorry, okay Sakura?" He chuckled lightly. "Besides, now you'll just know that bastard's worse when you kiss him--"

The door had only been shut for less than a minute, but it was already sliding back open. Naruto's mouth started running again in irritation of being interrupted.

"Go away! Not now, Kakashi-sen... sens..." Naruto trailed off, his mouth betraying him as all thoughts immediately emptied from his brain.

Sasuke only had to quirk one elegant brow up in question and it sent a flush of heat rising into his face. 

"Sasuke!" Sakura chirped, standing from her seat and blocking Sasuke from Naruto's sight with her butt. Normally Naruto would've thought it was a nice view as well, but in comparison to what he'd been looking at before, nothing was quite the same.

He'd almost forgotten just how beautiful Sasuke truly was. It used to irritate Naruto as a child, knowing all the girls went after him and not Naruto for his looks. Knowing compared to Sasuke, he'd always be less than perfect. He'd grown up frustrated in how everyone saw Sasuke as above him, that even Sasuke himself would never acknowledge Naruto in any way. But in a way, things were different now. They were rivals, equals, friends. And for some reason, it made Naruto all the more flustered when he looked at him. Because for him, that embodiment of perfection could finally see him, it had finally acknowledged him. And for whatever reason Naruto didn't feel worthy.

Sakura ducked her head, her voice stuttering a bit in her own fluster. "S-Sasuke... er, Naruto's woken up, that's exciting, don't you think?" She clasped her hands behind her back, taking a couple steps away from the bed and towards Sasuke. The raven still blocked by her body. "But he's tired now, maybe we should let him rest. We could go get food, if you're hungry?" She asked hopefully, peering up through her bangs to see Sasuke looking over her head at the blond.

"It's okay, Sakura." Naruto grinned a little as she whipped around to look back at him. "I can stay awake a while longer."

"But Naruto, I think you should--" Sakura started but Sasuke was already stepping around her towards the bed.

"This shouldn't take too long." Naruto supplied, hoping Sakura wasn't too upset about his decision. She should've known. When it came to Sasuke, nothing could get in Naruto's way.

Sakura hesitated at the doorway, looking for a moment like she was considering whether or not to leave, eventually deciding on allowing the two rivals some privacy.

"I'll just wait for you out here, okay, Sasuke?" She questioned and when Sasuke didn't reply, she slid the door shut behind her.

"Rude, you bastard. You could've at least said something to her." Naruto grumbled but the effect was lessened with the grin that refused to leave his lips, because _Sasuke_ was  _here._  "She really likes you, y'know?"

"Hn." Sasuke answered, his eyes leaving burning trails along the course of Naruto's exposed torso. Naruto followed his gaze, chuckling a little when Sasuke finally reached his eyes.

"I'm not hurt or anything, bastard. There was a seal or... something. Sakura said it was chakra-depletion, so no battle scars, unfortunately." Naruto beamed. "Except, I guess I don't really get battle scars cause I've got Kurama healing me, y'know? Unlike you, you're probably covered, huh." He teased and surprisingly, Sasuke smirked.

"I don't get hit enough in battle to have scars." Sasuke replied, his voice low and smooth and silky. "Only an amateur would wear them with pride."

Naruto snorted. "I guess that makes us both worse than amateurs if we don't even have scars to begin with, then."

Sasuke scoffed, relaxing slightly into the chair he'd sat so stiffly in before. Naruto grinned as he did so.

Upon closer inspection, Sasuke was far from in his prime as ever right now. For starters, one arm was missing, the black sleeve of his shirt hung flimsily down at his side. He looked thin, at least thinner than usual. His cheekbones stuck out hungrily and the dark bags under his alluring eyes contrasted the pale porcelain colouring of his skin. His hair was mussed up in the back too, but Naruto liked to think it was always that messy anyways. However differing from the rest of his physique his eyes glimmered with life and emotion that Naruto had so seldom seen, so indescribable and dazzling that it took Naruto's breath away. He sat there, just staring for a moment, until Sasuke raised an eyebrow and broke his trance.

Heat singed his ears and nose, and Naruto looked down at his bedsheets so Sasuke wouldn't see the colour on his face.

"Sasuke..." Naruto started, not really sure where he was going with this but felt he needed to say it anyways. Sasuke had always been so strong, and now looking at him, he seemed almost... weak. Fragile. Delicate.  _Something._ It was strange, but somehow, Naruto could tell Sasuke was hurting. "Are you okay?"

Sasuke stiffened in his peripheral, if only fractionally.

"You should be asking yourself that, loser." Sasuke answered after a moment.

Naruto scowled back at him, brows pinched. "Bastard!" He yelled but there was no real bite behind it, just worry that shone through so obviously Naruto had the decency to look away after he said it. Sasuke wouldn't want his pity. Sasuke didn't need any help. Naruto knew that.

"I'll be fine."

The words were quiet, spoken so lowly Naruto almost didn't catch them. But he did, and immediately he turned his eyes back on Sasuke, who was looking down at the floor by his feet. Naruto couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped him.

"Good." He murmured. Then, deciding to cheer things up a bit, he pasted a wide smile on his face, scratching the back of his neck as he spoke. "I'm okay too, just tired, y'know? I mean... I'm still having trouble moving my muscles and stuff, but Kakashi-sensei thinks I'll just magically get better with more rest." Naruto shifted a little closer to Sasuke, who turned his gaze to the blond from the floor at the movement. "But just between you and me, I think he's losing it. First he tells me I need more rest after sleeping for three days, then he sends Granny Tsunade out on some dangerous old lady mission...  _And_ he and Iruka-sensei are banging! Can you believe it?" Naruto chuckled, eyes lighting up as Sasuke smirked down at him. He felt lost in Sasuke's mismatched gaze, lost in the emotion the raven was showing for once in those distant eyes of his. He thought he could search and search forever, but still never figure out what that look meant. But for now Naruto was simply content with just observing, because Sasuke's eyes were on him now, looking at him like he mattered for something and Naruto couldn't look away. Not that he especially wanted to. "What is happening to the world..."

"You're the one who changed it, maybe try _thinking_ for yourself sometimes too, dumbass." Sasuke supplied sarcastically.

Naruto pouted at Sasuke's smirk, a blush creeping across his scarred cheeks in embarrassment. Naruto was quiet for a while, unconvinced that his tongue would work properly if he tried speaking while Sasuke just watched him expectantly like that. 

"Who did this to you?" Sasuke's voice came out surprisingly hard, and when Naruto looked up at his face his expression was set to match.

He didn't look especially angry and it didn't seem like Sasuke was teasing him about his weak state, but still Naruto took it as an insult. Was Sasuke looking down on him? Because some random person had gotten the better of him? If they were rivals Sasuke probably thought it made himself look weak as well, he probably was just trying to protect his image. Naruto studied the raven for a moment, searching those surprisingly lively eyes for the answers they were seeking. Naruto didn't really know himself just who'd done this to him, he hadn't exactly had much time to think it over being unconscious and all. But he thought he had an idea. That old man from the alleyway, when he'd touched Naruto's wrist is probably when he placed the seal. The sensation felt similar to when Tsunade had placed a seal on him again later, so perhaps that was when it happened. He didn't want to believe it, he didn't want to think that that old man had deliberately placed a seal on him knowing he could die from it. He didn't want to think that this was an attempted assassination. And for what? Did people really hate Naruto that much, after he's tried so hard to gain the respect of everyone? He wasn't prepared to tell Sasuke any of this however, even if he surmised that Sasuke had figured it all out by now.

"I don't know." Naruto finally said, averting his eyes so Sasuke couldn't see the lies floating at the surface. Naruto had particularly expressive eyes, and Sasuke would be able to see through him in an instant. But shockingly, Sasuke just leaned back in his seat, his shoulders sagging. Naruto looked back at him, seeing Sasuke watching him under knit brows. He felt like Sasuke wanted to say something, but the words never came.

"I just..." Naruto began. "Don't go looking for trouble, Sasuke. Please, promise me you won't."

Sasuke sighed a little, like he'd been expecting Naruto to say that. He didn't promise Naruto anything. Realistically, he knew he could never force him to do anything, he'd tried once and failed miserably. It was only on Sasuke's decision that he came back to Konoha at all, Naruto didn't exactly drag him here like he promised all those years ago. It seemed almost odd to be talking to Sasuke again. It was something he'd wanted for so long, since they were children, in fact. However the distance or time between them hardly seemed to matter in the end. He'd always wanted Sasuke's attention, and now that he was getting it it almost felt otherworldly and strange. Didn't mean he didn't like it, though.

He tried moving his limbs, but the heaviness in his body was too overwhelming. Sasuke watched him idly like a cat watching a cornered mouse.

"What're you doing?"

"I promised Sakura I'd punch you in the face when I saw you again for making her cry all those years ago, but my body won't move, damn it!" Naruto's expression promised wrathful vengeance. "Hey Sasuke, come a little closer, won't you?"

Sasuke smirked. "Get up and do it yourself, loser. I'm not going to baby you by making it easier."

"You bastard! You had this coming to you! Now shut up and come closer, I think I'm getting some feeling back in my fingers."

"With a punch as weak as yours to begin with, I think it's unfair to give you such a large handicap. How about we wait for another time, you loser."

Naruto glared at him, then the chuckle burst its way to the surface and he couldn't control the grin that spread across his cheeks. He'd missed this with Sasuke, after so many years of distance and frustration and confusion. He was happy Sasuke could still joke around with him like this, that their teasing from when they were kids hadn't been completely lost in the messy past few years.

"I missed this." Naruto heard himself say, only realizing he'd said it aloud when Sasuke's eyes widened fractionally. He blushed again, his mouth hanging open dumbly when he didn't know what to say to fix it. "Er... I mean..."

Sasuke remained silent, and the silence dug into Naruto's flesh and bones like kunai.

"I just mean that I'm glad you're home." He decided on, only realizing that sounded worse afterwards. "Like, I'm happy you're back here... in the village. It was never the same without you." Naruto refused to look at Sasuke as he spoke in fear of the coldness he'd see there. "Same with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura, too. We're all happy you're back."

Sasuke sighed, his smirk still evident on his lips. "You're such an idiot." He murmured.

"I know you don't need us, I know you're independent and everything. I've always hated you for it, but I know it can be lonely as well. If you need us, we're here for you." He added quickly so Sasuke wouldn't shut him down. "I'll always be here for you."

Oops. _That_  he hadn't meant to say.

The moment it came out of his mouth, Naruto braced himself for the worst. He'd taken it too far, too soon. Sasuke was here for reasons Naruto didn't even understand, and now he was shoving his care right back in Sasuke's face without him wanting it. And from how Sasuke stiffened at his words, how the raven had held his breath made Naruto feel like if Sasuke was gone by tomorrow, he'd know exactly the reason why.

Which is why it came as such a shocking surprise when he felt cool fingertips tilting his chin up from where he'd been glaring at his sheets in frustration. Turning Naruto's face to look Sasuke directly in the eye. And Sasuke's own face, which was far too close and far too open, shining a swirling mix of emotion onto Naruto so unexpectedly it paralyzed him where he lay. It was only when Sasuke's long eyelashes came into focus, when the heat of his breath and the pressure of his nose on Naruto's cheek was felt did he realize what was happening. 

And then Sasuke moved forward, closing the last centimetre of distance between them until nothing remained. Pressing their lips together like they were meant to be there, with desire and intention, so there was no way Naruto could think that this was a joke. And it was that reason that made his heart beat almost impossibly hard in his chest, knowing that Sasuke was kissing him not as a joke, but because he actually wanted to kiss him. It only confused Naruto more, of course, as to the reason of  _why_ Sasuke was kissing him.

But the way their lips fit together perfectly, an interesting clash of fire and ice beneath their skin, it made all those thoughts seem like nonsense. The delicate way Sasuke held Naruto's jaw in his hand. The tickle of long raven hair on his temple. The heat and the passion, the gentleness and the care. The warmth in his heart as he kissed Sasuke back just as firmly. A little nip to Sasuke's lips. A lick across Naruto's teeth. The ragged breaths when they broke apart, leaning their foreheads against each other as colour flooded into both of their cheeks. 

It was warm and intimate and foreign. And yet it also felt strangely familiar, like perhaps it wasn't as weird as Naruto's racing thoughts were telling him it was. It was comforting, _right_. A lover's kiss. Naruto looked up, seeing the dark lust blowing Sasuke's mismatched eyes wide, seeing his own blue ones reflected there. His lips were wet. Sasuke's breath warm.

"Sasuke..." Naruto breathed into the raven's mouth. The name sounding so wonderful as it rolled off his tongue he wanted a taste for himself. He leaned forward, pressing the lightest of kisses against Sasuke's open mouth, chasing him as Sasuke pulled farther away. But why was Sasuke moving away, didn't he see that Naruto wanted him so badly? Didn't he know Naruto's head felt light because of him, couldn't he hear the violent beating of Naruto's heart in his chest? But Sasuke pulled back, his hand on Naruto's jaw the last thing to go.

He turned around swiftly, making for the doorway with such certainty it made the good, warm feelings in Naruto's chest plummet with all the grace of a flightless bird. 

"Sasuke?" He called out, voice hoarse and sad. Pathetic, is probably how Sasuke heard it. He could feel the burn of confused tears at the corner of his eyes. He could feel the blood run cold in his veins. But Sasuke didn't answer. Only pausing briefly mid-step, tilting his head slightly as if going to look back, then he slid the door open and strode out without another word.

 

*

 

Without Kakashi's consent available, Tsunade decided to hunt down Kabuto on her own authority. Finding Madara's body was of utmost concern at the moment, and with Orochimaru being a bust for immediate reconnaissance, following the next set of tracks was their best option. Besides, if Kabuto didn't have it, then she wasn't sure who would.

Their hunt had led them to an orphanage located outside of a large city, Okaya, which had been known for its high crime rate for over a century. It seemed peculiar to Tsunade, with Orochimaru's words still haunting her however many nights later, that the city seemed no different than before the war. Still grungy and dirty. Big men in alleyways with half their teeth missing and half their limbs shredded from fighting. They watched her as she passed, catcalling and hooting before they realized just who she was, then shrinking back into the shadows from where they'd come. The children in this city didn't laugh, they cried. The people frightened and fighting for their lives everyday. Malnourished and hungry. Tired and sleepless. It was an astonishing sight to behold, the sheer number of people who were in desperate need of help, and who never expected it to come anyways.

No one tried anything with them, besides the few beggars who clawed up Yamato's arm, fleeing when he glared warningly.

The city was tall and expansive, worn and apocalyptic. Precariously towering buildings that looked on the verge of collapse. Cracked stone beneath their feet. Rags left hanging out of windowsills to dry in the hot sun above. The city was menacing, it promised danger, it promised violence. She'd heard of it before, it had quite the reputation not only in the Land of Fire, but the whole world for being a hub of crime. It was located in the Land of Fire near the border with the Land of Lightning, and missing nin from all nations found salvation here. For someone like Tsunade, who'd been the executioner of their fate for so many years, she could tell she was not welcome here.

The orphanage itself was just outside the city, in a secluded patch of forest down in the farmland. It was white with blue eves and window frames, a little schoolhouse surrounded by trees. Evidently Kabuto had come seeking refuge here after the war, that was all Orochimaru knew.

As they approached, the indication of the poverty-stricken city was displayed here as well. The orphanage looked a little untidy, a little uncared for. The windows were cracked and the white paint was muddled with dirt. Tsunade rapped her knuckles on the door forcefully, the wood splintering a bit beneath her fingers.

The elderly woman that greeted them wasn't much different. A little untidy, a little uncared for. Tsunade supposed it was hard running an orphanage in as hostile a place as this, however judging from the unwavering kindness the old woman showed them, Tsunade knew somehow she could sympathize. The elderly woman ushered them in at their request for information, not even thinking twice as she scuttled off to the kitchen to provide tea. Shizune accepted, her big heart giving into the woman's efforts, but Tsunade was on a mission, quite literally. The ANBU stood around the outside of the room protectively.

"Young Kabuto, you say? Yes, yes, he works here now! Yes, he is quite fond of children." The elderly woman replied when asked, animating each word with a movement of her arms. "Why, he's in the library with the children right now, I'll go fetch him."

Kabuto seemed different from before the war, and Tsunade narrowed her eyes in suspicion as he stepped into the room with a little smile. All signs of Orochimaru were gone from his body, no more white scales or fangs, no incongruous protruding snake tails from the hems of the traditional long pants he wore. He looked almost _too_ normal, _too_  sophisticated. He bowed to them upon entry, quietly asking the old woman to give them some privacy.

"I would say this is a surprise, but I think I already know what you've come here looking for, Lady Tsunade." Kabuto commented. He pulled out a scroll from his wide arm sleeve, offering it with a little nod of his head. Tsunade took a step forward but Yamato had already taken it, unravelling it to uncover the the name _Madara Uchiha_ printed with the intricate designs of a seal. Although you couldn't seal away living entities within a scroll, reserved to inanimate objects and dead bodies alone, even the name itself held power enough to make the entire room feel colder. Tsunade peered over Yamato's elbow at the writing, then turned angry amber irises to Kabuto.

"Is it authentic, or another one of your tricks?" She sneered and Kabuto perked up like he'd been flicked in the face.

"I can assure you that I have no intention of giving you a fake body. After the war I sealed away Madara's body in that scroll, and now I'm giving it to you knowing it's safer in the hands of people with the right intentions. Is that so hard to believe?"

"It's hard to believe there's no price for your _generosity."_ Tsunade growled. "Spit it out, what do you want in return."

Kabuto looked taken aback, watching with interest as Yamato pocketed the scroll in the inside of his ANBU vest.

"If you insist on making a trade then I have but one request I'd ever ask of you."

Tsunade frowned. "And what would that be?"

Kabuto smiled sadly. "I ask that the Leaf village help our city." He answered, causing Tsunade to flinch in surprise. "Even though the war has brought opposing nations together in peace, none of this peace has come to Okaya. While the Kage look to better the world, they forget about the internal issues that are as uncontrollable and present as ever. The general population is extremely poor, and so the city has become a hub for crime." He pleaded. "I implore you to help. Not for me, but for the generations of people to come. If the Leaf is so keen on creating a better world, then why not start here?"

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, the words hitting harder than she'd expected. It probably had to do with the fact that she'd actually seen the suffering of the people in the city, that Orochimaru's warning about the impossibility of true peace and happiness ever happening was proven here in its entirety. The people, starved and thin, the hope and love lost from their eyes. How could anything like this happen so close to home? Why had this never been noted with more urgency when Tsunade herself was in office? It's like the world just didn't care...

"Unfortunately that's not my decision to make. However..." She reassured. "I will gladly advocate on your behalf. I'm sure the current Hokage would be interested in spreading the good fortune of the Leaf with other cities, I'll make sure of it."

Kabuto smiled meekly, adjusting the glasses he wore on the bridge of his nose. "That's very kind."

Tsunade crossed her arms over her chest, taking the compliment in stride.

"Now that we have the scroll, may I ask why you had withheld it from us for this long? Especially considering if you intended to give it to us eventually." She pondered.

Kabuto frowned, seemingly conflicted. "Well... Yes, I had always intended on handing the scroll over. I've made some terrible mistakes in the past... but I knew at the end of the war it was my responsibility to see things through the right way. Starting with my biggest mistake, bringing Madara back to life. His, as well as the First Hokage's bodies are gold mines to us scientists, surely you understand. But I knew if his body got into the wrong hands again, this cycle of power and war would only continue." He stated. "But the main reason I hadn't come forward with the body is because there has been someone, or _something_  actively searching for it."

Tsunade quirked an eyebrow, intrigued. "Something?"

"Yes... Just rumours, you see. In actuality it's more of a myth."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, suspicion and familiarity feeling oddly like dejavu from a time back in Orochimaru's hideout. "What rumours?"

"There's not much hard evidence to go off of, but there's some entity that hunts from the shadows, seemingly presiding over life and death, rights and wrongs." Kabuto hesitated under Tsunade's intense gaze. "It's a folklore spread throughout the city, since most of these events happened since times far before the most recent war. Possibly since the Third Ninja War, even. I've never seen a body myself to inspect."

"And what events do you speak of?"

"Silent and instantaneous killings." Kabuto said lowly, each word coming out slow and full of warning. "People used to collapse in a busy crowd where moments before had been talking or walking. Each killing is done similarly, quick, seemingly painless, and no wounds on the body. Doctors had no idea what the cause of death could possibly be, people even going as far as to say it'd been the work of a god."

"That's ridiculous. There's always a probable cause of death, they probably weren't searching in the right places. Why hadn't I ever been notified about this, it's not like I was in the village during that time anyways."

"Like I said before, the city has never been a high priority for the nation. It's poor and houses many refugees and runaways. There's probably enough rogue shinobi living here to start a ninja village of their own."

Tsunade frowned. "And you said whatever this is is searching for Madara's body?"

"Yes, while there hasn't been any recent deaths, in some cases people hear voices inside their head. Not mental illness, more like a spirit who speaks to them, although many seem to believe they're simply going insane." Kabuto explained. "Of these people, many have come forward stating that the spirit is, cryptically, seeking 'justice by the hand of a god', some who believe this god to be Madara Uchiha, seeing as he's another myth from legend who was impossibly brought back to life."

"Does this... entity know you specifically had the scroll, by chance?"

"I can't see how it would. The Leaf village didn't even know. I haven't trusted anyone with that information." 

"So why give it to us now? To protect your own skin if they come looking for it?" Tsunade accused but Kabuto shook his head.

"No, I just believe the closer that scroll is to someone like Naruto Uzumaki, the higher chance the entity will keep its distance."

Tsunade perked up. "What's Naruto got to do with any of this?"

"Naruto is the world's hero." Kabuto stated simply. "What better person to snuff out a living god than someone who's done it before. No, I believe they are biding their time, waiting for the right moment to strike, if at all."

"Orochimaru said something similar when I spoke with him." Tsunade shared. "He told of rumours of a... almost kind of a mind-control jutsu. He spoke of someone building paranoia throughout the masses on an international scale, could this entity from the city be connected somehow?"

Kabuto considered this for a moment. "I'm not sure, from what I've discovered the victims here died instantly, there were no signs that they'd been controlled, not up until their deaths." He said. "I would tell you more, but unfortunately that's all I know. There's been no killings in many years, the fear has fallen into myth. Parents sometimes use it to convince their children from going out late at night. Gangs also use it as a threat, claiming the city's spirit favours them over others to encourage loyalty and fear, that sort of thing."

"Hm." That was a lot to take in, especially considering the glaring similarities with Orochimaru's warning. The only missing piece is that Orochimaru said his person hadn't killed anyone yet, except this spirit-person Kabuto spoke of had made a name by killing people. Something wasn't adding up. Although the people here believe the threat to be gone, Orochimaru thinks it's only building still. The most frightening thought was that they still don't know anything about this... whatever it was. Was it even a person? Or was it just coincidence.

"I think we should be leaving, there's a lot of new intel I need to get to Kakashi immediately." Tsunade turned to Yamato, who's gaze was hard, watching Kabuto with enough intensity to set him on fire. "Yamato." Tsunade commanded when he didn't turn to her immediately. The ANBU captain looked over warily a few times after that, feeling her gaze fixed on him. His arms were folded over his chest, the scroll tucked neatly inside and hidden from view. "Give the scroll to me, if we get attacked on our way back, my chakra reserves can hopefully help protect the scroll if the fight becomes fatal. I've got a bad feeling about all of this, something's not right."

Yamato smiled slowly, his eyes remaining hard and fixed as he spoke. He made no move to give her the scroll. "Perhaps we should stay the night and continue in the morning. After all, it's much easier to see in broad daylight than being caught in the shadows." He said composedly, seeming unaffected even as Tsunade's eyes sparked with fiery rage at being ignored.

"We leave now, I can't risk having it fall into the wrong hands."

Yamato smirked a little, patting his vest over where the scroll had been stored.

"Don't worry, it's very safe with me." He replied. "But with all due respect, it's unwise to leave now. The night is dark and menacing. Let's leave when we can see whoever we're fighting, yes?"

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, suspicious. Yamato had never once denied a direct order before, even the ones so brutal and immoral as, in the past, was a regularity in the ranks of the ANBU. And was he speaking in riddles? Maybe he was just being cautious, this was very important cargo they were carrying after all. Or maybe...

"Fine." She bit out, never once taking her eyes off him. "We leave in the morning. Kabuto, can you accommodate us for the night?"

"Of course, it would be an honour." He bowed and hurried off to collect spare futons for the group.

For Tsunade, the night was restless and unforgiving. The four ANBU made shifts amongst themselves, setting a defensive perimeter around the building. The room was quiet and empty, nothing but the soft sound of Shizune's breathing to fill the space. The two women were alone.

But something was wrong, like a sixth sense Tsunade could feel a chill race up her spine, pulling her from the confines of her bed to investigate. The orphanage was sleeping, every person, child, or Kabuto (whatever he was, she still wasn't convinced) quietly snoring in their rooms. Nothing seemed particularly out of place. 

So she went outside to ask the ANBU for a report. She searched each of their posts, suspiciously finding nothing. No trace of them. From the rooftop she growled, frustrated. She saw something strange then, a glimmer of light just on the edge of the surrounding woodland. The darkness swallowing it until there was nothing left. She leapt down. 

The woods were sinister and unsettling, the scream of the wind whipped the leaves overhead. But it wasn't the woods itself that was so disturbing, it was what was inside. Tsunade slowed to a stop, feeling the sting of vomit rise that she barely suppressed. Her eyes were open in shock. Her old fear of blood beginning to send anxious thoughts and alarm bells, and understandably so. Because splattered across the trunks of trees and down to pool on the forest floor were the remains of three ANBU guards, indistinguishable besides material from their ripped purple vests. Their bodies appeared to have imploded, drenching the areas around them in wet crimson. If Tsunade didn't have a plethora of experience with carnage from past wars, she certainly would have fallen to her knees in fear.

The moonlight catching the white wrappings around approaching feet was the only alert she got as a figure walked as silently as a ghost from the darker shadows of the forest. She turned to them, eyes wide in horror as the smiling face of Yamato came into view. She knew she should be on guard, but between the remains of her skilled ANBU guards and what appeared to be the killer both in front of her, she was a little in shock to say the least.

"Yamato?" Her voice came out quiet and shaky, so unlike her usual strong tone. "What did you..."

Yamato smiled wider, his voice composed. Deeper than usual, and slightly different in tone. "Afraid, are we, Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade physically shook the apprehension from her body, her eyes narrowing as thoughts once again began to form.

"Who are you." She bit out, each word punctuated with vigour. Yamato smiled wider, the corners of his mouth crinkling a little as teeth were shone. "What do you want with us?"

Yamato pressed a hand to his chest, acting shocked as he raised his eyebrows. "What do I want? Is that relevant?"

"Quit playing games." She spat, the smile on Yamato's face eerily spreading once again. "You're after Madara's body, aren't you."

The scroll was retrieved from his vest and unravelled to show the seal and lettering of _Madara Uchiha_ labelled across the face. He smirked as Tsunade glared at him menacingly.

"Oh this? I have no need for this..." Yamato sneered, the fingertips on one hand lighting with bright flame. He brought his hand to the bottom and allowed the flames to catch. "Madara Uchiha was a _fool."_

"Hey... Stop!" Tsunade took a step forward, hand outreached, but the flames had already risen, a hole being burnt through Madara's name, the heat eating away at the scroll until nothing remained.

"What the  _fuck!"_ Tsunade cried, outraged. She'd just spent over three days searching for that scroll, hoping to bring it back to the Leaf and keep it away from the wrong hands, who knows, maybe even give the Uchiha brat a new arm if she was still feeling generous. Which she certainly was not, especially not now with the scroll binding Madara's body to this world quite literally gone up in smoke. Yamato continued smiling creepily over at her, the blood from the other ANBU soaking up into his sandals.

"What do you  _want?"_ Tsunade seethed once again, the howl of the wind sending the trees into a violent creaking lean. "Why all of...  _this."_ She gestured to the ANBU, the charred ash flying away with the storm.

"I simply seek balance." Yamato stated taking a slow step towards the woman.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Ah... Only time will tell, of course."

"Who are you."

"I am no one."

Tsunade took a half step back, the chakra in her fists flaring to life as Yamato got within striking distance.

"Is this how you do it? Take control of someone's body and use them as a hostage?" She asked.

"It is rather convenient, yes." Another step closer. "But this man is no hostage, not today. Because you, Lady Tsunade... well, you need to be kept alive." He smiled. "At least for now."

She opened her mouth to speak but as quickly as a blink, Yamato had pulled a kunai from his utility pouch and sliced it swiftly across the side of his own neck. A spray of blood spat from the wound to the ground. His hands clasped in front of his chest for the sign serpent, then dragon, then tiger. His smile remained, and then slowly faded as the choking, gurgling sound of blood in his throat rose in volume. His eyes widened in fear.

 _"Fuck!"_ Tsunade screamed at herself, instantly falling to her knees beside Yamato and beginning to heal him. He hit a particularly bad spot, the carotid artery on the neck wouldn't be a simple fix, even with all her medical ninjutsu expertise. It all depended on if his body would respond and miraculously begin clotting, which was a huge gamble. Her hands were soaked red, matching droplets fell down her temple, and her knees were floating in a puddle of it. It was so entirely gruesome Tsunade at one point considered this being a crazy nightmare, her concentration only being drawn back to reality when Yamato would make more awful gurgling noises.

Orochimaru had been mistaken. Whoever that was wasn't coming, he was already here. And very much a threat.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip madara's body


	5. Open Hearts

 

Two days had passed since Sasuke's visit, and Naruto's thoughts were eating him alive. With Sakura's assistance, he'd began increasing his muscle movement and had finally convinced her he was ready to leave the hospital. Sakura had just stared at him a little. Then with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes she was helping his weakened body up and out the front doors in defeat.

His first stop was by the academy to let Iruka know he'd been 'freed' from the hospital, and Iruka's annoyance with being interrupted mid-lesson dwindled when his students crowded around Naruto like chicks to a mother hen.

 _(It was strange still, after all this time for Iruka, to see the way how Naruto, that trouble-maker from not so long ago, had affected even the youngest members of their world._ Especially _the youngest members of their world. He was warm, bright, and kind; everything the scarred and divided world needed after generations of war and suffering._ _Naruto was a beacon of peace. He was the world's salvation._

_Iruka ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately on his way out. But only after sternly reprimanding him for interrupting his class.)_

Those long days in the hospital room had given Naruto time to think. He'd tried to convince himself over and over that the kiss he and Sasuke shared was only an accident. Sasuke was a quiet person, he was a private person. He certainly didn't go around kissing people,  _kissing Naruto_ least of all just for the hell of it.

He'd extended his senses as he left the Academy, searching for Sasuke's unique chakra signature somewhere within the village. He'd resolved himself to talking things through with his friend, he felt like that was the most mature thing to do after such an awkward situation. From the way Sasuke had left Naruto so suddenly, Naruto assumed Sasuke thought the same; that it was just an accident, nothing more. It couldn't be anything other than an accident, right? Maybe Sasuke had mistaken Naruto as someone else? No, that still seemed a little too absurd for the prudent bastard. It had seemed so  _real,_ it had felt so  _right_. Sasuke had meant to kiss him. But why?

Naruto found Sasuke's chakra signature in an apartment building, and he walked up the steps to knock on the door. He raised his hand, but the door was already being pulled open, like Sasuke had sensed him approaching. Sasuke was revealed as the door swung back. A loose black tank and soft hair. His arms and shoulders defined from years of vigorous training, but lithe and compact for the agility shinobi needed. Striking raven locks framed his ghostly porcelain face, which once had been so fearsomely cold and distant now openly showed signs of curiosity and playfulness.

Naruto's throat felt dry. His mind went numb. His eyes lazily travelled down Sasuke's body before snapping back up to his face. Sasuke was smirking at him. His beautiful mismatching eyes looking skeptically onto Naruto, like he was trying to figure out what brought the blond to his door in the first place. But before Sasuke could ask and before Naruto could explain himself, Naruto's fist was connecting with Sasuke's perfect nose with frightening force.

The raven went flying backwards across the room, painfully smashing into a wooden cabinet on the other side. Naruto heaved. Sasuke winced as he pushed rubble off of his lap. Blood trickled from his nose, which (much to Naruto's disappointment) miraculously hadn't been broken. In all honesty after battling with Sasuke for so long, he was almost surprised the raven hadn't had a quicker reaction to his punch. Naruto liked to think the bastard let him do it, just like he said he would back in the hospital room before their kiss.

"I promised Sakura I'd do that." Naruto smirked. He invited himself into Sasuke's house, kicking his shoes off haphazardly at the door and extending a hand down to Sasuke with a wide grin. Sasuke looked blankly at his hand for a moment, as if in hesitation, and then his grip was in Naruto's palm and Naruto hoisted him to his feet.

Naruto let out a long whistle as he looked around the apartment. Sasuke dusted himself off, wincing a little when he poked at his nose.

"Did you have to hit me so hard?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto pointed at him accusingly. "You had it coming to you. I warned you, didn't I?!"

"I didn't hear a warning."

"At the hospital, you bastard! Sheesh, you make me sound like such a bag guy. I've punched you plenty of times before."

Sasuke stared at him mutely. He wiped at the blood at his nose with the back of his hand.

"What do you want, Naruto?" He asked after a pregnant pause.

Naruto's abundance of confidence immediately left him as his face flooded with pink. He fidgeted.

"Oh, I, uh, just needed to talk to you about... um..." Sasuke's body was increasingly becoming distracting. Sasuke's curious expression made it difficult to think. Naruto looked at the floor. "The kiss in the hospital room." He finally managed to get out. Naruto didn't see Sasuke stiffen at those words, and he couldn't hear the loud thump of Sasuke's heart. But still it happened.

"What about it." Sasuke monotoned. He began walking away.

Sasuke, of course, was impervious to this same embarrassment or repentance. Naruto should've guessed beforehand. He followed after him, distinctively flustered against Sasuke's careful obscurity. He rubbed at his neck nervously.

"Oh, you know... just, I don't want things to be awkward because of it. It was an accident, I get it."

Sasuke's eyes were on him then. Intense and fierce. And as quickly as that glint of emotion flared, it was gone, once again replaced with Sasuke's perfect porcelain mask.

"Right..." Sasuke replied. He placed some ice in a cloth and brought it up to his face with a wistful sigh.

Naruto frowned. Despite his best efforts he kind of sounded... dejected. It confused Naruto. And for some reason the dream he had when he was in his coma came back to him now, of all times. The dream he had about Sasuke, about feeling jealous about him kissing someone else. Was this their bond that was talking? Naruto had no idea, but he couldn't deny the fact that those feelings existed within him. That even now, they burned brightly.

"Hey, bastard. For what it's worth though, you're not a terrible kisser. Even  _if_ you're a bigheaded ice princess!"

"Hn." Sasuke smirked a little, although it was hidden by the cloth held on his face.

Naruto grinned lopsidedly, idly looking around the room they were in, which happened to be the living room. The grin turned into a sinister smile as he turned his mischievous blue eyes back onto his friend.

"You musta really missed me, huh, Sasuke." He teased.

Sasuke's eyes flashed with intensity again. Then they returned to normal. Naruto's brows rose at that.

"You wish, loser."

"It's okay, you don't need to admit it, I'd miss me too."

Sasuke sighed. He sat back on the couch, holding the ice up to his face still. "The only thing I would've missed was beating your ass in hand to hand to shut you the hell up."

"Hey! I remember something about you, oh I don't know, admitting defeat to me when we fought in the Final Valley?! Right now the score's one - nothing, for me, bastard!"

"I thought you said that wasn't about winning or losing back then."

Naruto's cheeks felt hot. He sneered at his irritatingly amused friend. "Yeah, w-well, it was a warm up round! When I beat you for real though, then you can kiss my ass."

"If that's the punishment, I don't intend to lose then."

Naruto scowled. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine, you looking to go now, ice princess? Or is your bleeding nose going to distract you from the embarrassment of having your butt whooped?"

Sasuke scoffed. He chucked the ice on the cushions beside him. He was oozing with confidence. "With a weak punch like that I doubt I have anything to worry about."

Naruto's fists clenched by his sides. His face was a little red. He kind of looked like a child throwing a temper tantrum, and it amused Sasuke greatly.

"Maybe I just didn't want to damage that pretty face of yours." Naruto growled. But his anger was replaced with intrigue when the lightest of blushes misted Sasuke's cheeks. Sasuke turned away to look out the window opposite Naruto, his minor spell of emotion obscured now from view. "Besides! You said yourself that that punch was hard earlier, you faker!"

"I wish you showed as much concern back when we were trying to kill each other. It would have made my job a lot easier."

Naruto frowned. His hands on his hips. "Like you ever coulda finished the job!" Now Naruto straightened, a smug smile unabashedly on his lips. "You have a soft spot for me." He commented.

"If only." Sasuke grumbled in annoyance. However they both knew that statement may not have been entirely truthful. For both of them, that memory from the Final Valley stuck clearly in their minds, back when they believed they were sharing their last moments together as they died slowly on that rock. They'd opened themselves up for each other. Their connection felt as tangible as a thick rope tying them together, and yet as fragile as glass. They'd shared something that day, so deep and intimate that neither would forget it for the remainder of their lives.

Naruto smirked mischievously. "Bullshit! After all, you wouldn't have kissed me if you didn't."

"So now you're arguing that the kiss wasn't an accident? Make up your mind already, dumbass."

"Well... wasn't it? An accident, I mean."

"Of course." Sasuke said all too quickly. Naruto bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn't explain why he suddenly ached a little inside.

"Bastard." Naruto huffed under his breath. Sasuke turned back to look at him then, an unreadable expression on his impassive face.

"... Are we going to fight or are you just going to keep arguing with me in my living room all day?" Sasuke prodded placidly after an awkward moment.

Naruto grinned widely at the raven. The moment of sentimentality he felt now replaced with familiar fierce competition for his rival.

"Only if you're prepared to lose, that is." Sasuke added indifferently as he rose from the couch and brushed passed Naruto towards the front door.

Naruto spun around, stomping after him. "You won't be so cocky when I punch that stupid smirk off your stupid face!"

They pulled on their sandals at the door. Naruto grumbled under his breath the whole time. And before Naruto could reach for the door handle, he felt the light, delicate pressure of Sasuke's hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, the door was gone, and with a  _poof_ of smoke the pair appeared in a familiar clearing. Naruto recognized it instantly. To his left was the old black memorial stone he'd caught Kakashi at many times before. To his right, the stout wooden posts where he'd once been tied to as a genin for cheating in Kakashi's stupid bell test. Of course Sasuke would teleport them here, it was somewhere he must associate with them training together. 

Sasuke's hand was gone from his shoulder now, but a ghostly touch remained which caused Naruto's skin to pebble. He blinked the feeling away. He strode over to the posts, remembering a time when things had seemed so much less complicated between Naruto and Sasuke. Back then, all they were to each other were rivals. And now, Naruto had to deal with these nagging foreign emotions inside whenever his thoughts drifted to Sasuke. The kiss. He was thinking about the kiss again. Even though his back was to Sasuke, he wondered if the raven could tell he was blushing a little.

He turned back to Sasuke only when he'd composed himself. Sasuke was watching him blankly, his single hand in his pant pocket. His mismatched eyes surprisingly not cold and lifeless, but swirling with emotion that Naruto had trouble pining down. Naruto cracked his knuckles. His face set determinedly. He smiled. His heart fluttered.

"You ready to get your ass kicked, bastard?"

Sasuke smirked, that stupid, stupid smirk that made Naruto's insides boil. "Don't expect me to go easy on you."

"Oi you're the one with the handicap." He nudged his chin at Sasuke's loose sleeve. "Just tell me if I get too rough with you, okay ice princess?"

"I think I can handle it."

And before he could think of a suitable comeback, Sasuke was coming at him. All speed and grace as he shot forward closing the distance between them with a well-aimed punch to Naruto's sternum. But just in time, Naruto countered it, falling back into the intensely-focused rhythm of blocking, dodging, and striking back after each of Sasuke's swift and meticulously placed hits. Each movement a blur to the naked eye. But strangely enough, Naruto could keep up. It was as if he knew exactly what Sasuke would throw at him, and for Sasuke, the feeling was mutual.

Naruto still felt weakened from the chakra draining effects left on his body, and he wondered if Sasuke was easing up on him for that exact reason. It wasn't as though either of them were in top form at the moment anyways. With only one hand to watch out for, Sasuke was a lot more manageable than during their fight in the Final Valley, however that could've also been due to Sasuke driven by an actual need to kill him back then. This Sasuke was different though. This Sasuke was studying him, his eyes alight with mismatched mangekyo and rinnegan tracing the movements and reactions of Naruto's body as though cataloging them for future reference. He would've almost seemed distracted, but just as Sasuke had always been a quick learner with jutsu his attacks began targeting Naruto's weaknesses. A block to his wrist and a quick jab to his throat sent Naruto back reeling, recovering only soon enough to see Sasuke rushing towards him, blue chidori crackling in hand.

As if on instinct, he activated his nine-tails cloak, his whole body glowing gold and black, chakra arms reaching to block the attack in vain as Sasuke slipped through. And just as Sasuke got within striking distance, just as Naruto's heart leapt in anxiety and as Sasuke's face became so close he could reach out and touch it, Sasuke stopped. His electrified hand mere centimetres from Naruto's heart. Naruto's eyes went wide.

Sasuke smirked, the chidori petering off into nothingness as he backed off, returning to his starting position across the field and waiting for Naruto to recover and start to  _think again god damn it_ with smug superiority oozing from every inch of his perfect face. Naruto sneered.

"One - nothing, for me." Sasuke stated as though it were fact from a book. 

Naruto's cloak fell, and while he was frustrated he couldn't help the grin that spread across his scars as he pushed himself to his feet.

"I thought I'd let you have the first one, bastard, just to see your reaction when I beat you the next time."

Sasuke huffed.  _"If_ you beat me."

Naruto frowned, pointing a finger at the boy across the field with dissatisfaction. "And it's not one - nothing, for you! It's one - one, we're tied you cheating bastard!"

"If you insist."

"I'm just stating the facts, Sasuke! You even said I won at the Final Valley! If anything, I think I should get  _two_ points for that win, y'know. I mean, it was so much more intense than this little--"

But Sasuke was already coming back at him, his graceful body but a blur before his leg swept beneath Naruto's feet as the blond jumped to avoid the fall. They started up again, matching each other perfectly blow for blow, ducking and striking, twisting and weaving as though clashing in a violent dance with each other. Naruto locked Sasuke's arm when he pulled out of the way of a punch to his face, and Sasuke retaliated with a kick to Naruto's jaw, using the leverage to spiral out of his grip with a flip in the air. Naruto reeled back once again caught off balance, and Sasuke moved in for the decisive blow. And as was expecting it, Naruto slid underneath the raven taking out his right foot and causing Sasuke to fall forward into a roll, wasting precious seconds as Naruto was already on him, pinning him by his chest to the ground with a hand on the back of his neck. Sasuke heaved out a little, winded by the sudden huge bulk sitting on his lower back. Sasuke's hand was immobilized by Naruto's foot, one hand on the back of his neck and the other at the front, mimicking a kunai pressed against his adam's apple.

Naruto leaned forward, his lips nearly brushing Sasuke's ear as he spoke roughly, his body quivering with adrenaline. "Well I can't see your face but this is kinda nice too."

He hadn't meant it to sound so sexual. Honestly he'd only meant it as a taunt. But the moment he spoke his own eyes went wide, his face flamed scarlet. Sasuke's body froze beneath him. And Naruto would be lying if in the moment, driven by instinct and copious amounts of testosterone, that he didn't become a little aroused at the sudden proximity of his and Sasuke's bodies.

"Get off. You're heavy." Sasuke mumbled after a shared awkward moment. And Naruto couldn't have been happier than to get away from whatever the hell that situation might've become if he'd stayed any longer. Naruto scurried off, instantly noticing that at least he didn't have a boner from the interaction, and sighed gratefully.

 _"Two_  - one, for me." Naruto declared proudly.

Sasuke brushed the dirt from his chest, eyeing Naruto suspiciously.

Their next round lasted longer, each more accustomed to the other's fighting style, and each more attuned with where their weaknesses lay. Naruto parried a strike by Sasuke, pivoting and ducking when another was aimed for his head. Sasuke swept his feet around to meet him, two kicks aimed high then low, narrowly catching Naruto's ribcage when he tried moving out of the way. But the impact was enough to send him staggering, regaining his feet as Sasuke leapt in for an upward strike with his elbow which Naruto caught with one hand and redirected it sideways, throwing Sasuke off balance. He formed a rasengan in his palm, leaping into the air and coming down on Sasuke while Sasuke rolled to get out of the way. The rasengan would've just barely nicked him in the shoulder, but suddenly, strangely, the mass of condensed chakra was gone, and instead a white daisy limply fell to the ground where it once hovered in Naruto's hand.

"EH?!"

Sasuke's rinnegan was flared wide, and from behind Naruto, not two feet away from him, a tiny explosion cut into the ground. Naruto screamed indignantly, spooked by the sound. He jumped, his concentration gone for but a moment. But for Sasuke, that was all the time he needed. A hook to the side of Naruto's cheek sent him flying to the right, his arms and legs flailing like a rag doll when he rolled for a lengthy distance before stopping. His face was flush to the ground. His butt in the air. He groaned loudly. The emotional damage from the sound of the rasengan switching behind him was far more prominent in his mind than the fact that Sasuke had probably left a bruise on his cheekbone from that punch. He nearly forgot Sasuke's rinnegan could do cool stuff like that.

"Two, all." Sasuke's silky voice sounded directly above him. And when he turned his eyes from the dirt to look up at the raven with frustration, instead of seeing Sasuke's smirking face Naruto was surprised to see Sasuke offering a hand down to him. Naruto groaned again, unaware that his entire face was covered in a thin layer of brown. He pushed himself into a sitting position, then clasped Sasuke's hand. Sasuke pulled him to his feet, letting go of his hand quickly and turning away. Naruto watched Sasuke's back as he distanced himself from the blond in preparation for their next bout. He studied the way his shirt fell from his shoulders, how the fabric inadvertently showed off the handsome contour of his body. Naruto admired the confidence Sasuke held about himself, his shoulders pulled back and his head high. His gaze accidentally travelled further. Down to his thin hips, his attractive ass. Had Naruto ever thought that about Sasuke's ass before? He didn't know if he'd even  _looked_ at Sasuke's ass before.

But unfortunately, at that exact moment, Sasuke's eyes were looking back over his shoulder. Awkwardly holding Naruto's gaze as the pair froze. Sasuke's eyes looked almost fearful, but at the same time thoroughly entertained. This was what Naruto assumed embarrassment would look like on Sasuke if he was capable of feeling that emotion. Which, unfortunately, was an emotion Naruto was especially prone to. His face burned. His mouth opened dumbly. Sasuke was waiting for an explanation, despite whatever aloofness he still tried to maintain.

"I, uh..." Naruto's voice sounded strangely distant from himself, like he were hearing it underwater. "Y-You got dirt. On your back." He saved himself quickly, his eyes turning decidedly away from the smirking Uchiha.

Sasuke raised a single dark brow. Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when Sasuke's gaze finally left his. Sasuke brushed at his back after only a moment of suspense.

After a few more rounds, Naruto finally had to call it quits. His body was shaking with fatigue. He still hadn't fully recovered from the chakra draining incident. It made him furious and frustrated. He'd never felt more useless.

He was surprised when Sasuke didn't shove Naruto's frailty in his face. In fact, if it were anyone but Sasuke, Naruto would've been convinced he seemed genuinely concerned about Naruto's condition. That concern came off veiled beneath disregard, of course. But that was just the bastard's charm.

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard. I won anyway." Sasuke grumbled as they made their way at a snail's pace back into Konoha.

"Shut up, I woulda had you beat if it wasn't for this stupid--"

Naruto had tripped, his dragging feet catching on flat ground, and he stumbled. But then, a support was there stopping him. An arm catching around his torso, the reaction so quick Naruto was a little winded. An arm. Sasuke's arm. The raven situated him upright again, his assistance retreating from Naruto as soon as the blond was stable again. Sasuke's face was blank, Naruto's own a little flustered from embarrassment.

"You idiot, Naruto." Sasuke scolded, leading the way as they continued on as if nothing happened.

"Uh... Thanks?" Naruto supplied awkwardly. Sasuke treated him with silence.

Things had felt tense between them ever since Naruto had been caught peeking at Sasuke's ass during their fight. Naruto failed to persuade himself that it was merely an accident, just as as the day progressed he was having more difficulty convincing himself that the kiss in the hospital was merely an accident as well. Sasuke had been skittish with him today. His touches had been brief, if at all. The only time he'd seemed comfortable with touching Naruto was when they were fighting, but perhaps that was purely out of habit. The bruises along Naruto's tanned flesh proved Sasuke had no qualms about punching him. Only touching him. For whatever reason that was.

When they reached Sasuke's apartment Naruto paused awkwardly outside the threshold, not sure what to say or do. In fact, he'd never felt more uncomfortable around Sasuke in his life, and he couldn't for the life of him pinpoint why. He wondered, if somehow throughout the past month of being home after the war, their relationship with each other had evolved in some way. He'd never felt these awkward feelings around Sasuke before now, and he'd never felt the alien emotions that tugged on his heart and fluttered in his stomach when something even remotely intimate happened between them. And yet, despite the awkwardness, despite the tension, Naruto didn't feel like his connection with Sasuke had diminished at all. In fact, their bond had never felt more powerful.

Naruto's fists clenched as Sasuke turned around expectantly, obviously curious as to why Naruto hadn't immediately followed him inside. Naruto's hands were shaking, his palms were sweating. He bit at the inside of his cheek as his body became warm with the unsullied happiness that their relationship made him feel. Like a blooming of colour, his heart pounded with soft yellows and oranges, purples and blues. Inside of him the colours mixed, creating something much brighter, much more precious; a shimmering gold. He felt blinded, hypnotized, as he registered Sasuke's face into his happiest memories. For the millionth time upon their return to the village, Naruto was again hit with the knowledge of how grateful he was that he could be with Sasuke again, that Sasuke had finally come home to him. The shimmering gold in his heart pulled him forward by the chest, tying his heart to Sasuke as though by a string of fate. He didn't know what was happening. He let the feelings control him. As though he were dreaming, his movements were foreign and fluid as he watched his hand slowly move to Sasuke's face. He observed the hesitancy in Sasuke's eyes that he'd been seeing all day. The way Sasuke's gaze flicked from Naruto to Naruto's hand and watched it. The reluctance that showed more clearly now as Naruto's fingers went to tuck a lock of Sasuke's hair behind his ear. And Sasuke pulled away.

The magic ended. The colours faded. Naruto flinched, his hand retreating back. Sasuke's jaw clenched. In his mismatched eyes there lay an unreadable expression. Naruto's heart thumped quickly. His pulse racing. And then softly, Sasuke shut the door.

 

*

  

He felt Naruto's chakra signature, so warm and bright, fade as Naruto headed back across Konoha after a moment of stillness. Sasuke slid into a sitting position against the door, his heart pounding in his chest. He caught his breath, his eyes large.

"Holy shit." He said quietly to himself, recalling the events of the past couple of hours, and more specifically the past few minutes.

These strange feelings that twisted and turned inside of him like a nest of snakes made him feel almost nauseous. It felt like too much. He started to shake. His breathing came out fast. His head felt light. He was brought back to a moment in the hospital room when he'd just learned about Naruto's condition not one week earlier; when Naruto had fallen into a coma. Tsunade had snapped him back to the present then, too. Her sharp tone, the harsh accentuation of each syllable of his last name ringing through the air now, grounding him. His breathing slowed. He felt panicky. He felt anxious. 

What was going on? Why did being close to Naruto make him feel this way? Was he still, after all this time, fundamentally afraid of being close to someone in fear of losing them? Hadn't he gotten over that when he'd decided to embrace his love rather than kill it? Apparently not.

Sasuke knew he was a flawed person. He'd been hurt and therefore was scarred. He knew physical contact was a trigger for him; something he'd once desperately craved as a child in his traditional family upbringing, only to never receive it, and so learned to fear it.

But he  _wanted_ this with Naruto. He wanted to feel close to him, he wanted to see him smile, hear him laugh, touch him. So  _why_ was his mind refusing to let him do just that? Inside, it felt like an invisible barrier had been put up between him and Naruto, and Sasuke hated it. He felt guilty for turning Naruto's advances down, whether the idiot realized they were deliberate advances or not Sasuke wouldn't ever be certain. In the moment he'd acted out of instinct, jumping away from the intimacy like when skin touches fire. But on reflection, deep in Sasuke's heart he knew now that it was the complete opposite he truly desired.

It had been in that hospital room, watching the colour once again drain from Naruto's face, too soon after their first flirtation with death at the Final Valley, that Sasuke realized this love he felt for Naruto was truly a romantic love. There was no other way to describe the feelings he felt. He'd tried again and again to tell himself he was overreacting, that it was his fear of losing Naruto, the last person he cared about in his life, that had driven him to think these things. But he inevitably concluded otherwise. The warmth and emotion that bled through the blond's lips during their kiss had set fire to the fading embers in Sasuke's heart. And even now, days later, Sasuke was still thinking about it. It hadn't felt awkward or nervous, in fact it felt  _right._ Truly like a lover's kiss. It gave him false hope, something his tired mind couldn't take any more of.

Sasuke cursed himself for kissing Naruto in the hospital room. He cursed himself for pretending for a moment that his feelings for the blond would ever be requited. He even left immediately because he knew forcing his feelings on the blond was wrong, and also because once again he'd fled from the intimacy on instinct. He'd once sold his soul to the darkness, and for someone as warm and welcoming as the sun itself, Sasuke wasn't what Naruto deserved. He knew that.

Despite the protests his tired body gave him from his and Naruto's sparring only just previous, Sasuke felt the urge to move. He needed to run, or fight something, or maybe just scream. He decided getting out of the confining space of his home was a good start. 

He habitually searched for the ANBU's chakra signatures that he knew policed his apartment around the clock, finding them camped out in their usual place on the rooftop across the street. He locked the door behind him on his way out, shoving his keys deep into his pant pocket and starting on his way down the road. His feet taking him in a random direction, his mind occupied.

He didn't own a cloak, but more than once he felt the urge to pull a hood over his head to block out the stares from the parting crowd. He sensed the chakra of the ANBU squadron trailing him from the rooftops, obviously marking him for civilian protection, most likely ordered by Kakashi and the higher-ups to do so the moment he stepped out of his door.

The whispers had started again, just as they always did when Sasuke showed himself in public. All he needed to do was look them in the eye with his rinnegan and people were too frightened to act alone. At least when he and Naruto had walked home earlier, they chose a route that rarely anyone frequented. But now, it seemed, fate had a funny way of playing with Sasuke.

With a mob mentality, the insults and shouts began again as they always did, each one cutting a little deeper than the last, no matter how much Sasuke reminded himself these people weren't worth the effort of listening to.

"You don't belong here!" A deep voice boomed from behind.

"Once a traitor, always a traitor." Another voice hissed.

"Monster!"

"Don't look him in the eye!"

One person opted to just spitting on him, and as soon as it left the man's mouth, who stood directly to Sasuke's left, Sasuke glared at him as he dodged the lobbed spit with ease. His rinnegan and mangekyo simultaneously activated. Screams and panic waved through the crowd as they trampled one another in an attempt to flee. The attitude in the street from the villagers had shifted from anger to outright fear.

"He'll slaughter us all just like his brother." Sounded from behind him, and Sasuke whipped around to glare into the crowd on that side as well. How dare they bring Itachi into this.

"The Uchiha's have always been our biggest problems..." Someone shouted as he turned.

"What a disgrace." Another one said.

He could sense the buzzing of the ANBU's chakra up on the rooftops. Tense and poised and ready to strike like a cobra at a moment's notice. They thought he was going to kill the villagers, or at least, they assumed he was about to act out. Sasuke calmed himself down. The insults still raining upon him. As he began walking again, someone actually reached out and pushed his back. A ripple reverberated his chakra as someone must have been preparing for an attack. When he turned around, he caught nothing but a small, frail and balding figure receding into the writhing crowd. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, but the man was already gone. Subconsciously, Sasuke activated his susano'o in defence. A ribcage of flaming purple appeared around him. An impenetrable shield.

The street erupted into terrified screams. The ANBU ascended upon him, attacking the susano'o and retaining order to the chaos and giving directions to the hysterical populous. Sasuke stood there calmly. His arms crossed about his chest. Unmoving and unflinching even as the ANBU stopped attacking after a few moments, realizing he wasn't actively threatening anybody, even with the intimidation his susano'o projected. 

Once the crowd dissipated and the ANBU warned him fruitlessly (their faces equally as daunted as the remaining civilians), Sasuke left with no other acknowledgement of the transpired events than a simple glance when the lead ANBU told him this would all be reported to the Hokage. And the chaos subsided.

His feet had unknowingly carried him to the one place he still had fond memories of in the village: the woods where he and Itachi used train together as children. He'd been here a lot recently when he needed time to think away from the bustle and noise of the town. The tranquility and nostalgia had calmed him especially during Naruto's attempted assassination, in the rare moments he'd been away from the blond's bedside. 

It was hard being back. It was hard having to pretend. He could see the mistrust in Naruto's friends' eyes when they'd walked into the hospital room to find him by Naruto's side. How lonely and shallow the village felt, haunted by the old memories of the childhood Sasuke associates with it, when he was young and innocent and naive to the harsh realities of the world. To the village, he will ever only be the murderer and traitor he'd become.

He didn't understand Naruto, why he'd chased him all this time, why he'd never given up on him no matter what. He knew he and Naruto had a strong bond, they were brothers, equals, rivals after all. But no matter what words Naruto told him after their final battle, Sasuke knew it was something much deeper than simply 'friendship' as Naruto had put it. They loved each other. Maybe not romantically on both sides, but they cared for each other like one another's lives were their own. He'd once heard an old saying that when two shinobi were powerful enough, all they needed were the exchange of blows to read the other's mind. He wondered if that were true. He wondered if Naruto knew how he truly felt about him.

_"I didn't realize it was in an Uchiha's genetics to relax like this. But perhaps it is this fault that has miraculously allowed you to live when the others all died, for that exact reason will forever be a mystery."_

Sasuke stiffened, reflexes begging his survival instincts to act responsively, but he made sure not to move. He searched for any nearby chakra signatures, finding nothing, even as the voice rang so clearly around the clearing. He opened his eyes slowly, being particular about hiding any signs of anxiety.

"I don't like being interrupted when I'm trying to sleep." He glowered, hearing the voice chuckle deeply at his response.

_"That's understandable. But coming so far looking for you, young Sasuke, has been no easy feat. It's a relief to know you have time to relax."_

Sasuke sat up then, hooking his elbow over one knee. His sword was back at his apartment, and he'd be at a disadvantage in a fight with only one arm seeing as he hadn't adjusted his fighting style to suit it yet. If this opponent was looking for a fight, Sasuke'd have to resort to using his visual prowess for most attacks, which meant he needed to physically see the speaker. Something that didn't seem to be happening, whoever this was wasn't anywhere close, as far as he could tell.

"Who are you." He asked instead, hoping to draw the speaker out. "I need to know who to kill first. Like I said, I don't like being interrupted when I'm trying to sleep."

_"Oh, there'll be plenty of time for that later on. For now however I only hoped to meet you. Finally."_

"I don't care. Leave me alone."

_"As cold and heartless as ever, I see. It's a wonder how Naruto Uzumaki had ever gotten through to you in the end and brought you home. Certainly perplexing to say the least."_

Sasuke's eyes hardened at the mention of Naruto, but if the speaker wasn't here to see it he doubted his minor flare of emotions would be noted.

"It was my decision, Naruto can't make me do anything."

_"Because you are stronger than him?"_

"Because he's strong." Sasuke stated, laying back down onto the grass and resuming his position from before. "He'd never force me to do anything I didn't want. Not now, anyways."

_"But he was like that at one time, correct? So he's grown up quite a bit since then, I see. Very interesting."_

Sasuke scowled, his facade cracking as anger fumed to the surface.

"Who are you?" He repeated, because now his suspicion was setting his hair on end. The voice was deep and masculine and somehow seemed like it was echoing rather than that it was physically here. But the thing that worried Sasuke the most was the comment the voice made about Naruto. Because talking about Naruto like he'd known him before fame was chill-inducing, that he'd been watching Naruto grow up, and by extension watching Sasuke grow up. Just who was this mysterious speaker, and just where were they coming from?

The voice chuckled again, deep and sinister, with the accent of a wide smile spreading their lips.

_"I am no one."_

"I have no use for no one, go away."

_"Oh, but my young Sasuke, I have use for you."_

At that Sasuke sprang to his feet, chidori crackling in hand as his eyes searched the woods for signs of life, finding nothing but trees and the village beyond. Maybe he was in a genjutsu?

"I'm done with being used." He snarled, the words dripping like poison. "Leave me alone, or I promise to hunt you down."

The voice laughed, and Sasuke felt mocked. His mask cracked again, his face twisting with rage.

_"I can assure you that we are of equal minds. I do not wish to harm you, only that you fit nicely with my ideologies. I'm sure we'll get along rather well."_

"I don't care about what you want, and I don't care about knowing you." Sasuke resorted to figuring out what exactly this jutsu was by keeping the speaker talking, unfortunately concluding it didn't seem to be a genjutsu, which only served to confusing him more.

_"But you will come to embrace it, I understand you Uchiha and your ridiculous prospects of protection and sacrifice. I know that eventually you will understand that what I hope for is for the betterment of humanity. Such an idea is not so ludicrous for someone of your beliefs. In time you will come to fathom the injustice of this world, and in time you will rise up as the protector."_

"And what makes you think I care for the betterment of humanity?"

_"You care for the ones you love, and no one loves fiercer than an Uchiha. Is that not reason enough?"_

Sasuke flinched. Was that a threat? He opened his mouth to speak but the voice was already resuming.

_"The peace you see is deceptive, as is anything one cannot control themselves. I aim to end all suffering altogether, in ways that the incompetent people of the past have never considered on acting upon."_

Sasuke chuckled fruitlessly, his eyes hard as he glared up at the sky with malice.

"Then enjoy your little conquest. I hope to be entertained when you finally get the balls to show yourself rather than hiding like a coward. Your rise to power will certainly be amusing, something to pass the time while I aimlessly await my death in this 'deceptive'  _peace."_  

The voice didn't answer for a moment, and Sasuke smirked triumphantly when he assumed his insults had hit a soft spot.

_"I do not mind petty remarks as I strive for something much larger than all of us. I seek balance. You and I both are only pieces of a game, we're only played to bring the world one step closer to salvation from ruin. And it must only be us, as we are the only ones who share great trauma and devastation."_

"You want to tell me about your tragic backstory like a couple of gossiping genin? Well I don't give a shit, I warned you to leave me alone and I expect you to head my words in the future."

_"You may threaten me all you want, but I do not fear you. We are allies, after all."_

"I'm allies with who I choose to be allies with."

 _"And you choose Naruto Uzumaki."_ The voice chuckled darkly.  _"A mistake that will cost you your life."  
_

"Are you threatening me?"

_"No, not I."_

Sasuke paused, perturbed. "You think Naruto will kill me."

The voice was silent for a moment, and if Sasuke could see the speaker he was almost sure he was smiling gleefully.

_"Let me tell you an old saying from times when the balance was right, if not brief, in the shinobi world. And it is this: 'When the light shines the brightest, it casts the deepest shadows, and in the state of imbalance only a god, a chosen one, will bring order back to the world.' Do you understand what that means, young Uchiha?"_

"Don't patronize me." Sasuke spat maliciously.

_"It means that our world has fallen out of order, the light is too bright and thus the shadows darker and deeper. To return the world to uniformity, only one who presides in both light and darkness may overrule societal laws to revolutionize a better world."_

"I'm not interested in being your god."

_"Oh Sasuke... you will be."_

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, but like a curtain had lifted the sounds of the forest resurfaced once more. He hadn't realized that during the time the voice spoke, it was like he'd been trapped, oddly, in a bubble of silence.

"You don't know who I've become." Sasuke muttered quietly, even knowing the voice's presence seemed to have left completely. The chidori that had been chirping away in his hand sputtered and died out.

What the hell was that? A genjutsu? Sasuke's imagination? He knew if that were the case he couldn't tell Kakashi about this interaction, assuming the first action they'd take was restraining Sasuke if his mind was finally going. But the voice had sounded so real, if not distant and echoey, and there was no way it could have been a genjutsu without his rinnegan seeing right through it. It was confusing. Irritating.

And the things the voice spoke of, light and dark and alliances and gods. Who did this person, No-One, think they were? Even Sasuke was relieved at the peace brought to the world, about how now he could pursue the things that had seemed so trivial and unimportant in his twisted past. He could be with Naruto now, which was something he'd stubbornly avoided in his youth.

Sasuke closed his eyes choosing instead to ignore No-One's words. He attempted to push his thoughts of Naruto into the back of his mind, and tried to doze off.

 

*

 

It was afternoon when the knock had sounded on Iruka's door. He'd been busy procrastinating on marking his class's recent assignment, and as he opened the door he was secretly happy to have yet another distraction to occupy him.

"Naruto?" He asked when the blond remarkably didn't say anything right away.

"Hey Iruka-sensei..." Naruto answered dopily. 

Upon closer inspection, Iruka noted Naruto seemed rather dazed and spacey, like his head wasn't entirely screwed on right. Iruka quirked a brow at that, but didn't mention anything.

"You want to come inside?" He asked instead, stepping out of the entranceway to allow the boy access. 

Like a zombie, Naruto slumped indoors. He toed off his shoes carelessly, and without saying anything more walked into Iruka's living room and fell face first onto the sofa there. Iruka would have laughed if he didn't suddenly feel worried for Naruto like a mother fussing over a baby.

"Did something happen, Naruto?"

The blond groaned into the cushions in response, and Iruka smiled softly as he took up his seat in the armchair adjacent.

"Kakashi-sensei's not here, is he?" Naruto asked after a moment.

"No he mentioned something about warning Sasuke, though. I think there was an incident today, he's meeting with him now." Naruto perked up at that. Iruka's concern was blatantly obvious as he asked: "Are you alright?"

Naruto chuckled lightly, a sheepish grin pulling on his cheeks that slowly died with his laughter. He lay chest down on the cushions of the couch like a dead fish. His eyes dull.

"I think there's something wrong with me, sensei."

Iruka frowned, an instinctual protectiveness causing his heart to ache a little bit.

"Why would you say that?"

"I don't know, I... Things are just really complicated right now."

Iruka looked over at the opposite wall, his face contorting as he tried to understand what the boy was trying to say.

"With...?"

Naruto flipped his head so his face was turned away from Iruka. 

"With Sasuke."

"Ah..." Iruka suddenly understood what this was all about. Naruto's mood, his body language, it all spoke of some kind of issue between the boys that had happened. He immediately assumed it was love sickness because that's indeed what it looked like, but he didn't know if Naruto knew that himself. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Naruto groaned again in reluctance. Iruka briefly wondered why Naruto would bothering coming to him if he was just going to groan and mope the whole time, but decided against criticizing him when he'd come here for help.

"We just-- I don't think Sasuke likes me."

Iruka's brows shot up. "... Likes you?" Iruka's mind initially went straight to the meaning of like in romantic terms, but then considered other options as well. Naruto was too easily flustered to say something as blunt as that.

"That bastard! He's always so mean to me and I just want to be friends! Can't he see that I'm like him?" Naruto sighed. "I wish he'd stop pushing me away all the time."

"Did he say something to you?"

"No. He just makes it clear he doesn't want to be around me, or, y'know, touch me or anything."

"Well, Naruto, everyone has boundaries. Maybe Sasuke isn't comfortable with touching like you are with other people." Iruka's face turned a little pink. He was sure hoping Naruto was talking about casual touches and not sexual ones, because Iruka hadn't quite psyched himself up for 'the talk' yet, as he assumed he'd have to be the one to do it with Naruto.

"It's not just that though. I don't want him to feel so alone anymore, y'know? He's finally home, and I want him to have happy memories here rather than only remembering his past. I think he's having a really rough time..."

Iruka nodded even though Naruto's face was turned away.

"You're very thoughtful, Naruto."

Naruto turned to him now, his blue eyes large and wide.

"I know, right! That bastard should be more grateful! I'm not even doing this out of pity, I really truly want to be friends like we used to be but something about our relationship just seems so different now... it's hard to put my finger on it."

"How so?"

"I don't know. There's like, this awkward tension between us. But it's weird because even though it's awkward and uncomfortable, it doesn't feel like it's pushing us away from each other. He's just as prickly and stupid as he always was, and I just want him to stop being so prissy. See, it's the same."

"If you've come here to talk about it then something must not be the same. I think you should speak to Sasuke. Who knows, maybe he feels the same tension and maybe he doesn't."

Naruto sat up, a dead look in his eye as he looked hopelessly at a confused Iruka.

"I can't talk about  _feelings_ with  _Sasuke!"_

"Well, why not?"

"Do you know how awkward that is?!" Naruto said indignantly. On his face was a shadow of horror in which Iruka assumed meant Naruto was imagining how that conversation would go.

"But isn't it already awkward between you two now?"

Naruto opened his mouth to fight back, then he paused. His jaw swung shut. He looked at the floor, puzzled.

"Well yeah but I don't think Sasuke would want to talk about shit like feelings--"

"-- Language, Naruto."

"Yeah, yeah. But what I mean is that Sasuke doesn't need anyone. Or maybe it's just that he doesn't want anyone to get close. He's always been like that."

Iruka sighed. A tiny frown curving his lips. "Everyone needs a friend, Naruto. Even Sasuke."

"He doesn't  _want_ a friend, he's made that much clear."

"Did he do something to make you think this?" Iruka questioned. "I thought he was different now than before."

"Well yeah-- But I just want-- And he--..." Naruto sighed tiredly, falling back onto the cushions. "I told you. Things are complicated."

Iruka smiled gently. "I understand. Sasuke's had a troubled life, and, well, now he's recovering and healing. He must be going through a lot, I'm sure he's very confused."

"-- He's not the only one that's confused." Naruto mumbled under his breath.

"I'm really proud of you for sticking by him. Everyone needs a friend like you in their life, Naruto. Sasuke's a lucky person."

Naruto's cheeks went pink. His eyes flicked away from Iruka.

"It's strange because I-- I feel so close to him, closer than I ever have before, and yet he feels like he's so far away from me. We understand each other, but at the same time I don't understand him at all. It's confusing, Iruka-sensei." Naruto slowly gripped at his shirt over his heart, pulling the fabric. "It  _hurts_ to be around him."

Iruka's smile was lopsided, his eyes narrowed just slightly. "What do you mean?"

"My heart. It hurts when he's suffering. I just wish he'd let me help him."

"You have helped him, you brought him  _home."_

"He doesn't see it like that. He-- He's trying to push me away again, I know he is. I don't want him to leave again." Naruto chuckled colourlessly. His face grim. "I don't think I could take it."

"Naruto, you might not realize it, but he  _is_ letting you in.  _Only_ you. To me, that boy has never seemed more driven in his life. I think you're misreading him."

Naruto's nose scrunched up in confusion. "Wha--? When did _you_  see him?"

Iruka laughed, some of the tension in the room lifting at the sound. He remembered the way Sasuke had looked down at Naruto's sleeping face back in that hospital room. How his eyes, his mouth, his forehead, usually so twisted and pained from stress and rage, had softened as he appeared totally at peace. He remembered the things Sasuke had promised him and now he was certain that Naruto was overreacting about whatever happened between him and Sasuke, because the Uchiha wasn't as oblivious as Naruto seemed to think he was. In fact, and as was to be expected, Naruto was the oblivious one without a doubt.

"That's a secret."

Naruto pouted and groaned in frustration.

"He wants to be here, Naruto. And he wants to be your friend. Have you been spending some time with him since you woke up?"

Naruto's face bloomed a deep red. His mouth clamped shut. Iruka wondered what that meant, but ignored his odd behaviour.

"Well, what I'm saying is you should. He's alone, he's going to need help, remember that."

Naruto waved off his comment. The flush in his cheeks finally receding. "I know, I know. I never meant that I'm gonna leave that bastard alone, just that things have felt weird, that's all I came here to say, I just needed to get it off my chest." Naruto smirked as a thought hit him. "Sasuke can't get rid of me that easily. He's stuck with me until the day I die, whether he likes it or not."

Iruka nearly laughed at that. From what he'd observed, Iruka didn't think Sasuke would have any opposition to that statement.

"What are we going to do about this tension between you two, now?" Iruka asked after a moment. He tried to refrain from smirking.  _He_ knew what would help ease the tension, but no way in hell was he going to flat out tell Naruto. Not now, when the boys were still getting used to each other again. Maybe not ever. Iruka hoped Naruto would come to that realization on his own time.

"I was hoping you'd tell me."

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened exactly."

Naruto sighed in defeat. "Okay fine." His cheeks flushed pink again. But he took a moment, like he was carefully planning out what to say, which is odd because Naruto never did that. "I don't know what happened but I kind of let my emotions get ahead of me and I tried to touch his face. He didn't like that obviously, but, I don't know, I feel like him pulling away was like he was rejecting our friendship. It... kinda hurt more than I think it should have."

"Oh, I see." Iruka nodded. "Maybe Sasuke just doesn't like physical contact. Like I said earlier, everyone has boundaries Naruto, and it's important to respect them. I think the most mature thing to do is to speak with Sasuke about how the rejection made you feel and apologize for making him uncomfortable."

Naruto looked conflicted. "But the thing is, sensei, is that I don't feel bad about wanting to touch him, and I don't want to apologize for trying to either. I  _want_ Sasuke to know that our friendship can be closer still and that I... I think I want it to be. He's so prissy, and everything has to be by his terms! What gives him the right to do things and then not let them happen to him in return!"

Iruka's brows shot up in confusion. He assumed by the way Naruto was angrily frowning at the floor that Iruka wasn't privy to the entire story here. Naruto was clearly concerned about more than just the one incident in which he tried to touch Sasuke.

 _"Talk_ to him, Naruto." Iruka urged. "Who knows, you might even be surprised by what he has to say."

 

*

 

Long after his visit with Iruka, Naruto finally decided to head home for the night. The afternoon had swiftly changed to evening, and the light was only just beginning to dim when down the street, he saw him.

The old geezer from the alleyway. Naruto recognized him instantly.

He'd thought about that old man a lot since he'd woken up from his coma. The old man who'd made an attempt on his life. The old man who'd nearly succeeded when others with far more power and influence had tried and failed. It pained Naruto inside, that after all he's done and worked towards there were still people in the world who wanted to end his life. Or perhaps, they wanted to end his life _because_ of all he's done and worked towards, which to Naruto seemed entirely too absurd and irrational to comprehend.

He was on high alert as he confronted the old man, knowing full well not to let his guard down around him now. As he got closer within striking distance Naruto finally pounced. His nine-tails cloak glowed gold and black as he activated it and rushed the geezer. With chakra arms extending from his hands, he commanded them to wrap around the old man's frail body. He had yelped in surprise as Naruto lifted him five, ten feet off the ground, his yellowish eyes large and wide and frightful. Around them the few remaining people still on the street had frozen to watch in hesitant curiosity, wondering  _why on earth_ Naruto Uzumaki was abusing a helpless old man in public.

"Hey! Gramps!" Naruto snapped. The old man's fearful eyes shakily turned down on Naruto now, only finally seeing his captor. "Remember me?" Naruto sneered, taking a few steps closer.

His glowing body was intimidating to the man, he could see it written on his wrinkled face. But Naruto was going to get some answers, damn it! From what everyone had been telling him, Naruto had nearly  _died_ from that chakra draining seal. He was going to understand why the man had tried to kill him. But mostly he wanted to understand what he had done that the man felt the need to kill him over it. It perplexed him. To Naruto, everything he'd done in his life had been to working towards a peaceful world. That's what everyone wanted, how could they not?

"Y-You're Naruto Uzumaki." The old man's voice quivered as he spoke, clearly shaken up by the circumstances he so quickly found himself in.

"You better believe it." Naruto growled. He brought the man down to eye level so he could look him in the eye. As he did so, the old man leaned backwards in fear, subconsciously trying to escape from the entity of raw, unlimited power in front of him. "I have some questions for you."

 _"Naruto!"_ He heard a familiar voice sound from his left. Then a hand was clasped firmly on his shoulder and Naruto turned to address him. It was Kakashi.

"This is him, Kakashi-sensei, the guy who put the seal on me. I got him, and I'm gonna get some answers, don't worry." Naruto told Kakashi, who'd appeared in a cloud of smoke, looking confused and fearful and  _angry._ Two ANBU guards flanked him, looking tense. Naruto frowned at the Hokage in wonder.

"Let him down." Kakashi commanded sternly, his usual jovial attitude all but gone.

Around them a sparse crowd had gathered. Kakashi looked nervous.

"But we have to interrogate him. He's dangerous, but don't worry I won't--"

"For god's sake, Naruto, let him  _down."_

Cautiously, slowly, Naruto placed the old man back onto the street.

"Apprehend him." Kakashi ordered his ANBU, who swiftly and efficiently immobilized the old man's hands behind his back and held him in a compromising position.

"What the hell is goin on!?" The old man yelled, his eyes still showing the same signs of fear as before.

Naruto didn't drop his cloak, his body glowing as he stalked up to the geezer and pointed a finger at his nose accusingly.

"You tried to kill me! That's what happened!"

The old man looked taken aback. He looked at Kakashi for help. He looked at the ANBU beside him.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talk about." The old man's voice quivered. He looked panicky, but not out of guilt. No, it looked too authentic to be considered anything but confusion at the events that had transpired.

"Do you... recognize this boy?" Kakashi asked the man before Naruto could throw down another argument.

"Of course I recognize him. Anyone would recognize him. He's Naruto Uzumaki."

"And... do you understand why we're doing this to you?" Kakashi's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Naruto frowned.

"Oh heavens. No, of course I don't. Please, tell me what I've done!"

Kakashi studied the old man in thick tension for a long moment. Naruto's fists clenched.

"Shall we take him, sir?" One of the ANBU spoke up, their eyes glancing at the crowd behind their mask.

"Take him to my office." Kakashi finally concluded. "I'd like to chat."

The group teleported back into Kakashi's office in Hokage Tower. The Hokage had ordered his ANBU to go clean up the mess on the street. There was no need for paranoia within the populous on top of everything else.

Kakashi turned, intrigued, to the old man who stood bone-thin, bald, and wobbly in the centre of the room.

"And what might your name be, sir?" The Hokage asked politely, the intensity in his eyes from before veiled now, but still present. Kakashi was studying him, analyzing him. Naruto pouted, his arms crossed about his chest.

"Daichi Fumihiro, Lord Hokage."

Kakashi waved his hand. "Please, drop the 'Lord'." He said, a little embarrassed. "It weirds me out." He mumbled under his breath.

The old man, Fumihiro, smiled at that, albeit a little hesitantly, like he was unsure if they'd attack him again for merely showing emotion. Naruto frowned at him, still skeptical.

"Isn't the Fumihiro clan originally from the Land of Water? What brings you to the Leaf?"

Fumihiro nodded, his voice shaking as he started. "Originally, yes. Our clan has never been big or powerful like the names of the Leaf, but we aided the Mist Village in whatever way we could. In my retirement, I took up the trades and only recently decided to move to a more central location for profit reasons, surely you understand." He said, albeit sheepishly. He eyed Naruto warily as he spoke, obviously still uncomfortable with what had happened between them earlier. "I planned on sending money home to my family, who obviously didn't like that I was going too far away in my old age, but after spending my youth serving something as brutal as the old Blood Mist Village, I needed some time away to adventure." He chuckled a little to himself. Kakashi nodded in understanding. Naruto was confused now.

"Wait so... how long ago did you come here?" The blond asked, perturbed. "Actually come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen you around here before. And how'd you know who I was!?"

Fumihiro nodded patiently. "You're right, I haven't been here long. I decided to travel after the war knowing that if I died I wanted to be somewhere peaceful, which is why I came here, of course." He laughed a little around his words. "As for you, well, Naruto, you're a hero! I just never expected to meet you in circumstances like we had."

"I'm a..." Naruto shook the flush from his cheeks, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand. "And what d'you mean!? We met in the alleyway, and you put a draining seal on me and I nearly  _died!_ How could you have not expected to meet me? Aren't you an assassin!?"

Fumihiro blinked. Then he laughed. Naruto jerked back, feeling mildly offended. Kakashi raised his brows.

Fumihiro wiped a tear from his eye. "Me? An assassin? Naruto, child, I'm afraid you've got the wrong man!"

"EH?"

"I'm no assassin, I'm a merchant. We've never met before this evening, I'm sure I would have remembered meeting you before now if I had. You're Naruto Uzumaki, of course I'd remember."

"But... it was you, I remember you, I remember your scar!" Naruto gestured to the long kunai mark, ugly and white, that stretched along the left side of the old man's face from his ear to his mouth. It was unmistakable. This was the man, Naruto had never felt more sure.

The old man looked confused. He looked down at his hands, then at the floor, seemingly lost in thought.

"But... I would have remembered..." Fumihiro said, almost just to himself.

"The journey from the Mist Village to the Leaf is about a month walking, correct? So you must have arrived in town pretty recently then." Kakashi inquired, hoping to pry more information that would help them in figuring out the truth.

"Yes, however..." Fumihiro's gaze went hazy, a distant look in his eye like he was trying to remember something that he couldn't find. "Honestly, I'm not quite sure how I got here."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well I... I must have just forgotten, old age does this to you, you see." Fumihiro snorted. "Perhaps I need to seek medical help, because the last thing I remember before waking up in Konoha was saying goodbye to my family and friends in the Mist."

"So you mean to say you don't remember anything from your month long journey..." Kakashi repeated apathetically, his eyes dull.

Fumihiro shook his head. "I apologize, Lord Hokage. I really don't remember."

"Please, drop the 'Lord'." Kakashi reiterated. "Well that certainly is a peculiar predicament. What about recent memories? Do you remember anything from today, or yesterday?"

The old man squinted in thought. "Actually... come to think of it, no I don't remember what I'd been doing today. I remember going to the market for food shopping, and then my boy Naruto here was calling to me. But we weren't very close to the marketplace... and I'm sure I left home midmorning today..."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, his face hardening. Then he blinked, smiling warily as he spoke. "I would suggest visiting Sakura at the hospital for an evaluation. Are you staying somewhere within the village?"

"Yes, I have a place to stay."

"Please don't be alarmed if I send someone for you within the next few weeks, there's been a rather serious and confidential incident happen recently, and perhaps your information may help us in preventing similar situations from happening again."

Fumihiro bowed. "Of course, I'd be willing to help in whatever way I can."

Naruto chuckled in embarrassment, his boyish attitude now dismissing his earlier anger and confusion. "Hey, I'm sorry I kinda yelled at you before, old geezer Fumihiro. I just wanted to get the truth, that's all."

The old man smiled in response, his eyes crinkling at the edges. "I forgive you, my boy. It's not everyday you get to meet the hero who saved the world, after all."

"Well, we  _have_ met before, but if you don't remember it then..."

"Perhaps this case of... amnesia was still ongoing when you met in the alleyway." Kakashi concluded, the thought behind his eyes whirring at a mile a minute.

"Yes, perhaps." Fumihiro responded. And just then, if for only a moment, his voice sounded deeper, stronger. Different from only moments before.

The old man grinned.

 

*

 

The doors to his office closed shut as Fumihiro had left after their conversation. Naruto had teleported away. Kakashi sat at his desk, finally alone, and let out a long, deep sigh.

Through the windows behind him the sky had turned dark, the glittering of stars overhead mixed into the lights of the village below, as though it were one endless sea.

Kakashi closed his tired eyes, resting his forehead on his clasped hands and taking a moment for himself. Today had been stressful. Not only had Sasuke had an incident in town, but now Naruto as well. Those two needed to figure out how not to behave like wild beasts otherwise Kakashi was going to be the one taking the blame for their fuck ups. And knowing those two, said fuck ups were guaranteed to be plentiful and of an extreme scale.

And yet despite knowing all of this, Kakashi wasn't angry, only worried. Sasuke had been so close to losing it all today. If he'd hurt someone, if he'd lashed out, even by mistake, as per the contract between the Five Kage Sasuke would be sentenced to death regardless. Those idiots needed to learn to control themselves better. Kakashi was once again reminded of them as those trouble-making genin he'd mentored so many years ago now, and suddenly Kakashi had an even greater respect for Iruka's line of work now more than ever before. To Kakashi, dealing with Naruto and Sasuke was like dealing with temper tantrum-prone immortal gods in the bodies of horny sexually-confused teenagers... which he supposed technically they were. He sighed in utter defeat.

He checked the time. It was getting late. He called for an ANBU, who appeared before him nearly instantly.

"Kiyoko, I need you to follow that old man, Daichi Fumihiro, and bring him to intel immediately. Collect Ino Yamanaka as well. I need the truth in all of this. And have guards stationed with Ino during the extraction process, I don't want to risk any chances."

The ANBU woman bowed and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Even though the old man had only just left Kakashi wasn't sure if he truly could rely on the word of someone who (might he add, that Naruto claimed was undeniably the assassin) believed himself to be suffering from amnesia. It just seemed far too suspicious, and Kakashi wasn't stupid enough to trust word over judgement when he had access to the interrogation corp and their abilities. Besides, in his lifetime Kakashi had seen some  _really wacky shit,_ and he simply couldn't ignore facts. It wasn't in his nature. 

As a shinobi he'd prided himself on his ability to read any situation and to figure out the best course of action in mere seconds, a trait that had led him to acquiring high leadership ranks at a very early age. But something about this current situation troubled him.

It seemed odd to him, the lengthy periods of Fumihiro's supposed amnesia, even as long as a month's walk from the Mist to the Leaf. Not to mention the highly convenient timing that he had forgotten precisely when Naruto had been sealed in that alleyway. However oddly enough the thing that stuck persistently in Kakashi's mind was the honest fear he saw in the old man's eyes when they'd first apprehended him. That fear wasn't a fear of being caught for being in the wrong. It was a much more simple fear. He was simply scared of the situation they'd forced him into, as would any person suddenly faced with the wrath and interrogation of Naruto Uzumaki and the Hokage themselves on such short notice. It was that fear precisely that disturbed Kakashi. It was that fear that made him wonder if there was more to all of this than what meets the eye. Because fear as plain and simple as that implied Fumihiro truly had no idea what was going on when they came at him.

In his own time during the ANBU, Kakashi had learned to never take things at face value. They dealt with missing nin, crafty criminals who'd escaped the shinobi lifestyle and the law, on a near daily basis. Understanding that more often than not there was a trap waiting for them at the end of the tunnel had been ingrained into Kakashi's mind like a hot iron. There was something more, he was sure of it... but what?

Theoretically, the most logical explanation was that Fumihiro suffered from some form or another of bipolar disorder or dementia, and that these episodes where he conveniently lost his memories were only from the effects of his brain. But suppose it was more than that. Suppose there had been someone else behind the scenes, playing them all like the pieces of a shogi board... Kakashi could see that being a viable explanation, especially considering if they used some sort of mind transfer jutsu like the Yamanaka clans' on Fumihiro and used him like a puppet. Yes, a third party seemed more and more feasible the more Kakashi thought about it.

He assumed the extraction process by Ino in intel would take all night. If his hunch was true, that there was a third party hiding on the sidelines, then he was sure they'd be smart enough to alter or block certain memories somehow. At this point, Kakashi wouldn't put such ridiculously outlandish sounding jutsu aside. Like he said, he's seen some really wacky shit in his day.

He found his thoughts drifting to Tsunade, to Yamato, and the rest of the squad he'd sent out, wondering if they'd found any supplementary information from Orochimaru like he'd instructed them to. That man seemed to know just about everything about everyone, surely he'd know something about Naruto's weakened condition already. However, they'd been gone for longer than he would have liked, and still they haven't returned.

Kakashi was tired. The responsibilities of the Hokage were difficult, and for the hundredth time that day he thought he wasn't cut out for this line of leadership work. He wished he could've settled down somewhere quiet in the countryside. Retire from the shinobi life and just pack up and leave the pain of his past behind. He would've liked that, but he knew no matter how the world changed, or how long this peace lasted between nations, that kind of a life was one Kakashi would never have. He was a shinobi from the day he was born, into a family with a father who was renowned as a legend across the world. He was a soldier the moment his mother died when he was a baby. He was hardened the moment his father committed suicide. He was lifeless the moment Rin, Minato, and supposedly Obito had all left him, alone. He could never live a life of relaxation and tranquility, it was a life he'd never known to begin with.

Kakashi was tired. He was exhausted. Being Hokage was hard. He personally blamed Obito for forcing him into this. His friend's final wish...

With a flurry of hand signs and a poof of smoke, Kakashi found himself in the one place of comfort he sought when his mind was beginning to spiral out of control. This was his safe place. This was where home was.

"Kakashi?" Iruka's voice, low and smooth and rich like caramel, called from the kitchen. He must have sensed Kakashi's chakra signature the moment he'd appeared in the front hall. The smell of Iruka's home was familiar. Sandalwood and summer breezes. It washed away the heaviness the day had brought him. It renounced the fatigue to be replaced with the warm lull of intimacy and comfort.

Kakashi padded to the kitchen, wherein he found Iruka busying himself with making a late dinner. Kakashi came up behind him, folding his body over Iruka's shoulders and wrapping his arms about the teacher's abdomen. Iruka chuckled as Kakashi placed a masked kiss to his cheek.

"I'm home." He spoke privately into Iruka's temple when the brunette turned his face into his lover.

Iruka's hair was down, a brown shoulder-length cut that framed his kind face, just as he preferred to wear it when he was home. His tanned skin was warm beneath Kakashi's fingers as he slipped casually under the hem of Iruka's shirt. Iruka turned in his arms to face him, and pulled Kakashi's mask over his nose to hang in a bunch at his neck. The scar across Iruka's nose lifted with his cheeks when he smiled. His eyes crinkled around the edges. He planted a gentle kiss to Kakashi's lips, the smile still there when he pulled back to look up at the taller man. That's what Iruka was. Gentle. Warm. Kakashi was so blessed.

He loved moments like these. Nothing more than a reminder of what they meant to each other. A chance to touch one another.

Kakashi pulled Iruka's body into his chest in an embrace, his lips placing a long, soft kiss to the teacher's forehead. Kakashi sighed in relief. Finally, for the first time today, he felt at peace.

"Long day?" Iruka asked, his head tucking securely into the side of Kakashi's neck.

"Yeah..."

"I'm making ramen."

"Is Naruto here?" Kakashi was suddenly alert.

Iruka hummed. "Nope. He came by earlier though."

"He was just at the office with me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Why." Iruka's voice had turned from liquidy to ice cold in a split second, sounding like a mother about to reprimand their child.

"He caused a scene in town. It's all taken care of."

"A scene? With Sasuke?"

"Oh no, someone else." Kakashi said ambiguously. Iruka waited for a moment, then clearly understood it must be confidential information and decided not to pry any further. Kakashi deflated a little. Being Hokage was hard.

"He was here being all depressed about Sasuke this afternoon. I thought it might have something to do with that."

"What happened?"

Iruka looked up at Kakashi then. His warm chocolatey eyes shining with pride and delight like specks of gold.

"Our boy's growing up."

"'Our boy', huh?" Kakashi grinned stupidly, finding that amusingly accurate of a claim.

"What? Don't tell me you don't think of him like that?"

"It freaks me out a bit. It makes me feel old." Kakashi admitted. "Did he finally get laid or something?"

Iruka's cheeks puffed as he pouted, entirely unamused with his partner's sense of humour.

"I think he's finally figuring his feelings out, okay? I'm proud of him."

"It took him long enough."

Iruka levelled him with a look. "Hey, now. Don't be a hypocrite."

Kakashi shrugged, unperturbed, but his aloofness only made Iruka smile more. Iruka slapped his ass, making Kakashi jump a little.

"C'mon. Cut some veggies for me, alright?" Iruka placed one last kiss to his lips before turning back to prepare dinner.

 

*

 

This life of alleged peace irked him, watching from afar as the old man, the old man who'd been so useful to him up until now, made his way home for the night after his interrogation by the Hokage. The tranquility and security the Leaf provided were nothing but lies. The strength that hides within all but invincible as gossip tends to tell. He'd seen great civilizations crumble, he'd been there while it happened. There was no such thing as peace, there was no such thing as safety. Because in the end, everyone is only human, and humanity naturally seeks destruction.

Through the old man's eyes, he watched as he brewed himself a cup of tea. The darkness of the village beyond his kitchen window was dotted with lights like an expansive starry sky, and the people within as irrationally high and mighty too. It irritated him, that these people assumed they were safe. He'd sworn to himself long ago that devastation like the events of his past would never come to be again, he'd vowed to wreak vengeance for all the lives lost, and he promised he'd save the world as a protector from the shadows.

He was no one. Nameless since the day his life was destroyed, but his past was one to never be forgotten. It scarred him, inside and out, and those scars that would never heal were reminders of the true cruelty of the world. Because when there is peace, the chaos that comes after is all the more harsh and extensive, especially on the innocent and naive.

For now, sacrifices needed to be made for the betterment of the world, knowing that the people's lives he's used have all gone to creating an improved life for future generations. He sought revolution, after all, and revolution unfortunately required pawns.

The mission had been compromised, he couldn't afford to continue using the old man with the Hokage sticking his nose into his business, it was too risky. The Hokage suspected too much, a worthy opponent indeed. The old man had served his purpose. Through him, he had infiltrated the Leaf, he had shaken their sense of irrational invulnerability by targeting Naruto Uzumaki, and now, he had another pawn at his disposal. Yes, the old man had done his job well, and now, there would be nothing more the Leaf could learn from him. The old man was a vault of valuable information on himself, on his motives, that he couldn't let the Leaf discover. However he suspected his new pawn to be much different than the rest. Indeed, he was certainly something special. The mission had been compromised, but not at all useless.

As the old man sat himself down in his armchair for the night, steaming tea set on the table to the side and a book in hand, through his eyes he took control and the old man's mind went blank. He made a quick series of hand signs, the invisible seal along his forearm glowing to life, surging a superabundant amount of chakra into the man's frail body, and all at once frying his chakra network with overload. The old man died peacefully. And when he was finally kicked out of his host when the old man passed, he opened his eyes to the real world.

A filtering of moonlight glittered down from the leaves overhead. A chilly breeze pulling at his clothing. Crickets chirped. The salty smell from crashing waves sounding just beyond wafted through the forest floor. He remained seated for a while, considering his next move.

He wasn't stupid enough to confront the Leaf directly, that would be suicide with both Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha there to guard it. He'd have to play this smart, and fortunately for him, the pieces were all in place. Unless the necessity arises, he'd probably be able to wait this one out far away from the action. With Sasuke Uchiha as a pawn, everything would move much smoother from here on out.

"You're back, my lord." His companion grunted from beside him. A big fellow, all muscle and battle scars overlaid with thick lines of black ink. "I assume everything went according to plan?"

"Yes, Katsuo, and our pawn has been disposed of, meaning all that's left in the village is Sasuke Uchiha." He smiled, wicked and white, his eyes cold and hungry. His voice smooth, deep, silky. Sinister. "After all these years, it's finally time to begin."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter today, hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Give me your thoughts, editing can always be done.


	6. A Long Night

 

Contrasting the heavy worry in her chest and the storm of thought in her head, the night was calm and beautiful. The bright moon and flickering stars above lighting the forest floor beautifully, and eerily. They couldn't move very fast, she'd been able to stop the bleeding but Yamato was still very weak even several days later. Medical ninjutsu could only do so much.

"I'm slowing us down. You should get back to the village, Lady Tsunade, I'm burdening you. I'll make it back on my own." Yamato wheezed heavily. He looked awful, a thick bandage wrapped around his neck, his skin pale and lifeless, and heavy bags that darkened when he shut his eyes in exhaustion. They trudged at a snail's pace, but Tsunade was determined.

"Don't be ridiculous." She answered curtly, hefting Yamato's arm more securely around her shoulders. "I already saved your life. I'm not about to leave you out here to die."

Shizune worried her lip on his other side. "Lady Tsunade... isn't it risky travelling at night? Perhaps if we waited until morning--"

"We'll do no such thing. If the enemy wanted us dead he would have done so already. We have to get this information back to the Leaf. Kakashi and Naruto need to know." Tsunade sneered. "I can't sense anyone, but I'd bet my life he's following us."

"Why wouldn't he have attacked us yet, though? Is he still controlling Yamato?"

Yamato coughed wetly. "No, I... I lost consciousness during that time, but I know I'm awake now."

"He won't attack us because we're being used." Tsunade gritted out. "He let us live for one reason -- to send a message."

Shizune gasped. "You don't think--"

"Before he made an attempt on Yamato's life, he stated clearly that I needed to be left alive for the time being. We have no way of knowing whether or not he knows what Orochimaru and Kabuto told us, but by sending us back to the Leaf shaken and injured, he thinks he'll get his point across for us to back off."

"Bastard." Yamato spat, sweat forming droplets on his brow.

"We failed our mission to secure Madara's body, but at least this information will be useful."

"I don't think he counted on me still being alive, though." Yamato chuckled colourlessly, his dull eyes hard. "That must've been a mistake on his part."

"But... if he knew you hadn't died then why hasn't he come back to, you know, uh... finish the job?" Shizune asked timidly.

"Maybe I'm part of the message he wants to send?"

Tsunade looked over her shoulder briefly, skittishly. A chill ran up her spine. "Well, whatever the reason we still need to get home alive. Let's pick up the pace a bit, we'll be there soon."

 

*

 

The moonlight trickled in from the window beside their bed, illuminating Iruka's caramel skin in a soft silvery glow. He was sitting upright gazing out the window. The sheets pooled around his waist. The lean muscle in his back relaxed with the gentle movement of his breathing. Kakashi sleepily watched him for a bit, not wanting to disturb this moment of quiet peace and instead opting to study the curves and contours of his lover's body with fascination. The large scar in the centre of his spine, dark and angry, conflicted with the rest of his beautiful body. But Kakashi didn't mind scars, he had enough to go around himself. To him, scars were a sign of strength, proof that you had done something worth fighting for.

Iruka's eyes, although he couldn't see them, were no doubt filled with thick worry and thought. He could almost visualize his brows pinched together and slightly upturned. The tight-lipped frown curving his mouth. Iruka was unmoving, and while he looked like a symbol of peace, sex, and all things good and beautiful, Kakashi knew there was a storm of thought brewing beneath the surface. 

Iruka jumped when Kakashi's hand lazily grabbed at his hip, his thumb drawing slow circles into the soft skin there, just wanting to be touching him in some way. Large brown eyes turned back at him suddenly, a smile replacing the frown when Iruka noticed Kakashi watching him.

"Hey." Kakashi's voice was thick with sleep. One eye was half shut and the other heavy.

Iruka hummed gently, a sigh of relief. "Hey."

"You 'kay?"

"I'm fine." Iruka's smile wasn't convincing enough, and Kakashi gave a little squeeze to his hip. "Sorry if I woke you." Iruka purred.

"You didn't."

Iruka's eyes were gentle as they moved down Kakashi's neck to rest on a spot on his collarbone. His smile turned a little mischievous.

He tapped on his own collarbone. "Hey, 'Kashi. You got a little something right there."

Kakashi snorted tiredly, his eyes shutting as he settled down into his pillow again. His thumb still moved across Iruka's skin. He didn't need to look to know there must be some new lovebites darkly spotting his pale flesh. At least  _he_ had a mask that covered them up in public. Unlike someone.

"You should see yourself."

Iruka chuckled. The bed dipped as Iruka settled down beside him again, placing warm, soft kisses up his shoulder, and on the ANBU tattoo on the side.

"Did you sleep at all?" Kakashi asked after a moment of bliss.

Iruka sighed. "No. But, I mean, it hasn't been that long and..."

"Are you okay?" Kakashi tried again, hoping to get a more honest response this time. He opened his eyes, and Iruka was there. But instead of seeing the worry he thought he'd find, Iruka was smiling warmly at him. The teacher placed a long and slow kiss to Kakashi's lips, not taking it any further than what it was meant to be. Chaste. Sweet.

"I told you, I'm fine."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Okay fine. I've just... You know, this isn't really a good conversation to have now." Iruka said.

"Why not?"

Iruka's cheeks flushed pink. Kakashi raised a brow. Iruka didn't usually get this flustered around him anymore, they were pretty much open books to each other. It was like going back to a time when they'd first started their relationship, when they were both still new to the whole 'trust' thing.

Iruka kicked him lightly under the sheets. He was giving Kakashi his best 'teacher glare', but the effect was lessened by the pretty pink on his dark cheekbones.

"Because it's late. And because I said so, alright?"

Kakashi leaned back a little, his hands went up in defeat. "Okay, okay."

Iruka sighed. Their legs became entangled. After a moment, Iruka was kissing Kakashi's shoulder and neck again. His warm breath travelled along Kakashi's skin. The soft press of his lips methodical and constant.

"Someone's in a good mood." Kakashi commented. "This conversation we need to have can't be all that bad then, hey?"

Iruka puffed, sitting up to look down on his lover with amusement. "Stop trying to weed it out of me. I know what you're trying to do."

"Guilty." Kakashi smiled a little when Iruka came down to catch his lips. His soft hair tickled at Kakashi's temple. His lips were inviting and familiar. A weight settled on his stomach as Iruka crawled on top of him. He cringed a bit when his ribs, which had been cracked from the war, disagreed with the extra pressure. Iruka rolled off of him.

"Oh, no... I'm sorry, you okay?"

"I think I'm getting old." Kakashi answered, but he could tell Iruka knew what was wrong straight away.

Iruka sighed, giving up as he lay back down beside his lover.

"Why can't you just swallow your pride and go get yourself fixed by Lady Tsunade or Sakura? I'm sure mending bones wouldn't take so long for them. You'd be in a lot less pain."

"It's fine, there's people who's injuries were far worse than mine after the war. They had priority."

Iruka shook his head a little. His fingers traced the ugly pink scars over Kakashi's chest, the newest ones that formed a large x, with tender care.

"Well it's been almost a month now, right? Just go." Iruka smirked. "And, Kakashi, you're the  _Hokage._ Of  _course_ you have priority."

With a sigh Kakashi was looking up at the ceiling. His mind somewhere else entirely, curdling with subconscious frustration.

What did that even mean? 'Of course'. It's not that it was wrong to say that, just that Kakashi was wary of the new lifestyle and responsibilities that came with holding the Hokage title. Iruka seemed to realize his mistake.

"Look, all I meant was that you deserve to be cared for just like anyone else, okay? Sometimes I really worry for you, you know." Iruka added the second part with a sarcastic undertone. "Besides, if you're not healthy, how're you going to protect the village?"

"There's nothing to protect it from. My position's lost it's purpose."

"Hey, now.  _Hey."_ Iruka turned Kakashi's face to look over at him. "Protecting the village isn't all being the Hokage is about. You're what people look up to here. You're the person all of the young Naruto's today see and think, 'I'm going to be like him someday'. Being Hokage is so much more than just protecting the village, you know this."

"Yeah, I know." Kakashi couldn't get anything passed Iruka. "But... Well sometimes I think..."

"... What?"

He hesitated for only a second. "Well... what if the Hokage position is outdated?"

Iruka leaned back a little, his eyes flicking around Kakashi's face.

"What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is what if we lived in a society without Kage?"

"You know shinobi need a strong leader more than anyone. We're military, we always have been."

"Exactly, they need a strong leader and... I mean, I'm not exactly Hashirama Senju or Minato-sensei..."

Iruka's eyes were wide with concern. His fingers, which before had been trailing up and down Kakashi's chest, now stilled.

"Is it the stress that's talking, Kakashi?"

Kakashi tried looking up at the ceiling again, but Iruka refused his head from moving. Kakashi hated showing vulnerability, he always had. But with Iruka it was different, because he never could seem to hide it well enough from someone who made these emotions so apparent within him. Iruka just naturally had that effect on people, and on Kakashi most of all.

And then suddenly, the concern in Iruka's eyes turned to anger. He sat upright in bed, his chocolatey gaze glaring down on Kakashi, who's own eyes opened a little wider in surprise.

"So you're saying just because you're not some god like the First Hokage that you're giving up on the Kage system? Are you stupid?" Iruka scolded him. "Well I say so what! So what if you're not a god, and so what if you don't have any reason to protect the village anymore. Kakashi, when will you realize that  _we want you_ to be our leader? Us, shinobi, the people, and obviously Lady Tsunade had agreed with us. We believe in you, so why can't you believe in yourself a little more?"

"Because I don't know what I doing?"

"I don't care! You're a natural leader, even if you don't realize it. Damn it, Kakashi, you're not going to give up on this, are you?"

Kakashi sighed. "I don't think I have a choice. You'd probably murder me, huh?"

Iruka relaxed after a few heavy breaths. The tenderness in his gaze showing once again.

"That's not what this is about."

"I know. It's just... I don't think I'll ever fit into this role completely. I never saw myself having this sort of effect on people."

"You're a true shinobi, the truest of any of us, even Naruto and Sasuke. That's why they respect you. That's why all of us respect you."

"But when I was in ANBU--"

"Your past doesn't define you, Kakashi." Iruka settled down beside his lover again. His fingers turned Kakashi's face to the side and their foreheads pressed against one another. The intimacy and gentleness had returned, even if the frustration in Iruka's gaze was still evident even now. "You're not Kakashi of the Sharingan anymore, you understand? You're Kakashi the Hokage."

Iruka wasn't smiling. His sharp tone held raw honesty that came from somewhere deep. It intimidated Kakashi a little bit. Their eyes were locked. Kakashi could feel Iruka's breath. He could hear his own heartbeat.

"And to me, you're just plain old Kakashi. The man I fell in love with."

"Plain old Kakashi doesn't sound quite so bad." Kakashi mused.

"No, he's a pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?" Iruka stated with a roll of his eyes. "In here, and with me, I don't care who you are... Kakashi of the Sharingan, or Kakashi the Hokage, or even plain old Kakashi. But out there, they need you to be the person they see in you, which is someone to believe in, and someone to guide them. You need to have more confidence in your leadership, because you're a wonderful Hokage, Kakashi."

Kakashi smiled weakly. "You know, it's a bit ironic that we ended up talking about something pretty complicated even after you said you didn't want to."

Iruka sighed, and the last of the previous tension in the room dispelled at the sound.

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize." Kakashi shook his head. "I'm glad I have someone easy to talk to like you."

The teacher's lips quirked into a sheepish half-smile, and Kakashi pecked him on the forehead. Iruka's pulled him close, his hold firm but comforting.

"I just hate seeing you like that. It scares me." Iruka confided.

"I know. I don't mean to--."

"Of course you don't mean to." Iruka chided, albeit gently. He embraced Kakashi affectionately, his bare skin radiating heat across Kakashi's chest and torso. "But it doesn't mean you _didn't_ feel that... you know... hopelessness again."

"Mm."

Iruka worried his lip, and Kakashi kissed him to make him stop. Their kiss was slow and languid. A comfort after the tense conversation before. A thanks to Iruka for his unwavering support. A chance to tell Iruka he loved him, even if that very saying was unspoken between them recently because of the obviousness of it.

Kakashi was smiling involuntarily again. A reoccurring factor that always happened whenever he found himself in Iruka's company.

"What would I ever do without you, Iruka Umino." He said earnestly, because it was true. So entirely true it felt like it was being ripped from his very soul. While being a genin leader had retaught Kakashi the value of teamwork, Iruka had retaught him the value of love. He'd reinvigorated life into Kakashi that had been dead for so long he'd forgotten it was even there. This man, who cared and cared and never stopped. Kakashi didn't know what he'd done in his life to deserve this much happiness, because only a few years ago, the idea that Kakashi would ever even  _be_ happy was laughable.

Iruka's eyes glinted teasingly. He gripped at a handful of ass that had Kakashi's brows quickly shooting upward. His breath tickled Kakashi's face.

"That's easy. You'd still be an idiot, Kakashi Hatake."

Kakashi chuckled, pressing forward to taste Iruka's lips for the millionth time that night.

But before he could, a heavy wooden knock sounded from the front door, interrupting them. Iruka flinched at the noise and Kakashi sat up to look over at the bedroom door, instantly alert. He recognized the chakra signature as the ANBU guard, his second in command only under Yamato, that he'd called to his office earlier that evening. His expression grew tense as he pulled himself from bed.

"Work." He explained to Iruka as he hastily pulled on some clothes and a mask. He scrubbed a hand through his unruly hair as he padded towards the front door of the apartment, opening it once he got there. The ANBU stood stiff and tall when Kakashi nodded at them in greeting. The cat-decorated mask resting on their face obscured their identity, but Kakashi had worked with these people before, and he knew each of his subordinates in great detail. 

"A report, Kiyoko?" He questioned, his brows pressed together. His prior passion in the bedroom was now sharply replaced with the acute focus of a soldier.

"Yes, sir. And it's not good news." She answered. Her eyes flicked over Kakashi's shoulder as if suggesting they speak somewhere more private.

Iruka was still home, and while Kakashi would normally try to keep his relationship and work separate, he didn't exactly feel like teleporting to his office just to have to teleport back a few minutes later. He ushered the ANBU indoors. She looked warily down the hallway, then spoke in a hushed voice. 

"Daichi Fumihiro is dead." She stated and Kakashi stared hard at her for a moment.

"The cause?"

"We're unsure, the body is being transferred to the hospital as we speak for Sakura to perform a complete autopsy. There were no signs of a struggle in his apartment. The only evidence we have, his tea, was still warm which suggests it may have happened right before I arrived."

"I see."

"Shall my squad investigate it further, sir?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck in anxiousness. "Not until after I speak with Sakura. For now I want you to maintain surveillance on civilians. That's two attacks in the span of a week, our first priority is protecting the villagers. I want six squads rotating through Konoha immediately, but no further than the wall. Whoever's done this might still be here."

"Yes sir."

"And I'll need guards stationed here, and at Naruto and Sasuke's apartments as quickly as possible." He informed his sub commander as an afterthought.

"Right away sir." She saluted and teleported away.

Kakashi slowly walked to the door, and locked it. Concerned, he reached out with his chakra, searching for any signs that he might be being watched. This death must have a connection with him somehow, it seemed questionable for it not to. It also seemed doubtful that this would be anything other than a murder. Someone knew that Kakashi and Naruto had spoken with Daichi Fumihiro earlier that evening, and someone was afraid of what they'd discovered. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say what they  _could've_ discovered.

With his hackles raised, he quickly padded back to the bedroom to find Iruka remarkably unharmed and awaiting Kakashi's return with unabashed eagerness. But when Iruka read the intensity in Kakashi's eye, he knew something must have happened. Kakashi began putting on the rest of his uniform. He zipped up his green vest. He pulled on his gloves.

"Is... everything okay?" Iruka asked, holding the duvet up to his naked chest. In his eyes he held concern, and maybe a little distress. Kakashi took a moment to smile at him. Despite the things Iruka had said earlier about Kakashi living up to his role as Hokage, he knew Iruka worried more than anyone when Kakashi was put on the front lines of danger. And like a sixth sense, Iruka could tell from Kakashi's demeanor alone that whoever had knocked on their door had brought some sort of stressful news regardless of Kakashi's attempts to hide it. He placed a masked kiss on the teacher's crown.

"Everything's fine. I'm sending some ANBU to patrol the apartment, but I'm going out--"

"-- What? Why?" Iruka looked a little freaked out. He wasn't scared. No, he was worried. Worried about Kakashi. In fact, he looked ready to jump out of bed and join him himself. Iruka was strong, mind and body. Kakashi never had to treat him with delicacy, and he respected Iruka enough to understand that while Iruka may not be as skilled as he, Iruka was still a shinobi of the Leaf and deserved to be treated as such.

"There's been an incident."

'Incident'. Kakashi hated that word. He'd had to say that word to Iruka so many times since he'd become Hokage, and he resented the barrier it put between them.

"Can I help?"

"It's safer if you stay here."

Iruka held his gaze. "You don't need to protect me, you know."

Kakashi smiled privately to himself, knowing beneath his mask it would've been difficult for Iruka to know. He admired his lover's tenacity for a moment.

"I do. It's my job." He caressed the teacher's face with gentle care, loving the way his smooth tanned skin warmed his fingertips. "I'm Kakashi the Hokage, remember?"

Iruka's eyes were paralyzed wide and round in awe. And then the warmth was brought back. They crinkled at the edges a little when he smiled. And there was something else in that chocolatey gaze, something that Kakashi had seen before but would never get tired of receiving from Iruka. _Pride._

Kakashi arrived in a poof of smoke in the hospital lobby a few moments later. It was rather empty and quiet. The night shift was usually like this, Kakashi would know from all the sleepless nights he'd had in this building after particularly difficult missions.

"Lord Sixth, we were expecting you." A nurse scurried down the hallway, his clean white robes billowing. He had mousy brown hair and green eyes. His face was a little flushed, like he'd just run across the hospital to get here. "Sakura's down this way, please follow me."

Kakashi stuffed his hands in his pockets, following with a curt nod of his head.

The morgue had the sharp smell of antiseptic, and even with his mask Kakashi felt like he was suffocating when he first walked in. Sakura's gloves were bloodied, her shiny metal tools lay spread across a table beside. She was alternating between medical ninjutsu and slashing with the scalpel, her eyes hard with concentration as she studied the innards of the old man. It was a terribly gruesome sight, but for someone like Kakashi, it was just another day at the office.

He knocked on the doorframe to grab Sakura's attention.

"Oh, hello Kakashi-sensei." She said distractedly, peeling her long white gloves off and setting them aside, hands on hips.

"So? What's the verdict."

Sakura stared at him a long time, face blank. And then like a dam breaking suddenly she was a snivelling mess, tears streaking down her face as she hiccuped. Kakashi, perplexed, looked around awkwardly for help. He wasn't good at dealing with crying people.

"Sakura?" He asked after a minute, moving across the room to hold her by her shoulders and get a better look at her face. Her eyes were red and puffy and she roughly wiped her nose with the sanitary sleeve of her hospital coat.

"Sorry." She mumbled, rubbing at her eyes and letting out a loud sniffle. "I just... I'm such a failure, and Lady Tsunade-- oh no, Lady Tsunade's going to be so disappointed in me! I failed, I can't do it!" She cried and Kakashi forced himself not to back away as his mind was so desperately telling him to.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm-- I haven't had him here for long but I don't know what's wrong with him! I don't know Kakashi-sensei, it doesn't make any sense!" Her eyes widened. "If only I was more like Naruto or Sasuke I wouldn't be failing like this. Lady Tsunade taught me everything, and I still managed to mess it up."

Yeaaahhh... this wasn't really Kakashi's thing. He fidgeted a little, eventually deciding on patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"So you're just not sure how he died?"

"That's right. I've checked everything, from old age to heart attacks to disease. It should be easy to tell. There's no wounds to his body... I thought it might've been something similar to Naruto's draining seal, but I just can't tell. I'm... I'm not good enough at that yet." She shook her head dejectedly. "I have no idea what happened to him."

He studied her for a moment. She had heavy bags under her eyes which had lost their usual vibrant green colouring. Her pink hair was messy and unkept in a spiky ponytail. Her shoulders were slumped with hopelessness.

Kakashi sighed, straightening himself and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"I think you should go home and rest. You've done everything you can for now." He commanded.

Her eyes, wide and wild, looked up at him as she began to protest. She looked a little feral, a little desperate. Like she needed to prove herself above all else. He was thankful for her enthusiasm, but still, he silenced her with a held hand.

"That's an order."

"But the hospital--"

"The hospital can manage while you get some sleep."

"Kakashi-sensei, I--"

"Sakura." He levelled her with an imposing gaze, watching patiently until her bottom lip stopped quivering. "I understand you're stressed, but I need you right now. I have reason to believe this may have been an assassination by a highly skilled individual, and that this same person might be connected with Naruto's chakra draining incident."

Sakura's eyes widened. "You mean Naruto was a target after all? But here there isn't any signs of chakra drainage." She gestured to the deceased. "In fact, his chakra network seems completely fine."

That stumped Kakashi a bit. The connection between the two cases seemed overt, however if the method of killing was done differently then what could that imply? An accomplice, perhaps? Or maybe the cases simply weren't connected after all... Unless that was the idea behind the two different methods...

Kakashi's mind battled with itself as he convinced and disregarded the same fact over and over again in a confused state. Was he looking too much into this? Was it really just a freak accident after all? No. His hunch told him differently, and he chose to stick with it. For now, at least.

"Whatever the reason, we're not going to find it tonight. Not with you half dead on your feet." He gave her a little reassuring smile, which of course she couldn't see under the dark fabric of his mask.

"Kakashi-sensei... does this, um... make me worse than Naruto and Sasuke? I mean, you--you saw what they did to the Final Valley, it was... and I... I can't even do  _this."_ She looked heartbroken as she spoke, her voice coming out low and toneless. This seemed like it came from somewhere deep and personal, and Kakashi was a little taken aback that Sakura would have that kind of trust in him to share this.

"Sakura, they're...  _special_ cases. You shouldn't ever feel like you need to compare yourself to them--"

"Because I'm not special?" She interrupted, her brows pinching in frustration. Kakashi stepped back, trying to diffuse the tension.

"No, no, that's not what I meant." He tried to correct. He scratched the back of his head, letting out a sigh. He wished Iruka was here in his place, Iruka was so much better at this kind of thing than him. "How should I say this... You have things that you're good at, and they have things that they're good at... Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't ever be as good of a healer as you, that's certain." He tried to sound enthusiastic, but soon that died too when Sakura's expression remained skeptical. "Look, Sakura. You're your own person, just like they're their own person. You've all gone down different paths, and that's why you're who you are today. They've struggled, and they've failed, over and over again, and because of it they've learned and grown. I'm not saying you haven't struggled, or that you haven't failed, because that's something that will continue happening to everyone for the rest of our lives. We'll continue to learn, and we'll continue to grow, and we'll also meet more hardships. That's what life is."

Sakura frowned after a moment, but the frustration in her eyes had seemed to dissipate.

"It's just that sometimes I feel like people compare me to them. I feel like I have to live up to their expectations or I'll be letting our old Team seven down, you know?" She said sheepishly, her eyes avoiding meeting Kakashi's. "I'm not Hokage, and I'm-- I'm not as powerful as Sasuke and Naruto... It seems like I'll always be in your guys's shadow no matter what I do..."

Kakashi's eyes widened. Because these thoughts about self-worth and comparing oneself to another sounded strikingly familiar to himself and his reluctant role as Hokage. He felt like he wasn't suited for the position because he'd never live up to the greats of the past, because to him, the Hokage title was something reserved for him only to ever serve under, not to have himself. He wondered now if Sakura shared these feelings but in relation to Team seven, however for her they were more directed on  _wanting_ to be as good as the rest, not unwilling as Kakashi found he was. He smiled a little at her, once again admiring the fiery spirit he'd always seen in her even as a genin. No one would ever be as powerful as Naruto and Sasuke, that was just fact. But still, he appreciated her tenacity and her drive to become better, even if it was hidden beneath her tears and sobs of frustration.

"So what?" Kakashi mimicked Iruka's words to him earlier that night, finding that by saying them to Sakura now, they'd resonated a little more with himself as well. "Your success shouldn't hinge on the opinion of other people, Sakura. You've come so far since your genin days, and you've grown to be quite a responsible kunoichi. I'm  _proud_ of you." He said in earnest.

Her emerald eyes were only now looking back at him. Her mouth open, her face in awe.

"But what kind of medical nin am I if I can't even figure out how this man died?" She didn't necessarily sound overly degrading to herself, only curious of Kakashi's answer.

"You will fail again and again and sometimes, like now, you'll feel lost and in the dark." She looked downcast at his words, but perked back up when he spoke next. "But you  _must_ keep trying, and you must never give in to defeat. I'm counting on you now, Sakura. You will still forever be a member of Team seven, and in my team, we cooperate with each other. Even though I'm Hokage now, I still need your help. Do you understand?"

She seemed to get the message. She nodded her head, and wiped the last remaining streaks of tears from her eyes. She wrapped her arms around his torso, and buried her nose into his chest. Kakashi stiffened, mildly shocked, but recovered quickly enough to pat her on the head a few times awkwardly.

He heard the squish of liquids, only now remembering the blood and viscera that coated her surgical jacket and he closed his eyes to refrain from cringing.

 _"Thank_ you, Kakashi-sensei." She said sincerely, her voice muffled a little by his vest. She held him for a moment, and when she released she went back over to the silvery table to resume her investigation.

"Sakura." Kakashi stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "You need rest. This can continue tomorrow."

She didn't turn back to look at him, but still, she nodded her head in agreement. She peeled off her surgical jacket and undid her hair from it's spiky ponytail.

They heard noise behind them as someone entered the room. It was the nurse from before, still looking red in the face and a little out of breath. His eyes were large, frantic. He looked to Kakashi.

"Lord Sixth. Lady Tsunade has returned."

 

*

 

A wanton moan erupted from the boy underneath him. Ripped from his throat with relief and pain and something much needier. A whimper. A cry for more.

And another was now following the first. The boy's head had fallen back, the tense cords in his neck exposed. His chest, defined from years of training, stretched beautifully as the boy raised his arms above his wild blond hair. His mouth open. His brows pinched. His eyes closed.

 _"Sasuke."_ The name was said breathlessly. Spoken as though in the raven's ear, travelling into his very veins and sending a chill racing through his body.

Sweat glimmered on the boy's forehead, his blond hair stuck to his temple. His body, proud and muscular, rocked back and forth with Sasuke's movements. Sasuke watched his lips as the breath puffed out of him in pants. Intrigued by the way his own name rolled off the boy's tongue.

Driven by his emotions, Sasuke's hand cupped a scarred cheek. His other shaking as it held his body aloft. His thumb caressed the soft tan skin under the boy's eyelashes. The boy's hand held firmly over Sasuke's, his palm warm. It was a loving touch, an intimate touch. It gave him more confidence. Sasuke leaned down, their foreheads touching.

"Look at me." Sasuke asked, although it sounded more like a plea. He  _needed_ those eyes, whose colour made him breathless, to be focused on him. Only him. And surprisingly, they opened immediately, so unlike the blond's usual quarrelsome nature.

But those eyes were not blue. No, they were a dull, faded gray. The boy's mouth was slack now, the expressions seen before lost. Sasuke noticed their positions were different from before too. Instead of being overtop of the boy, they lay side by side. Their clothes had returned. Torn and tattered, covered in dirt and blood. Beneath them a cold surface of stone. He was in pain, down to the very pit of his soul. His heart was on fire.

"Naruto?" He'd asked cautiously, concerned, when the boy hadn't moved. He was completely still.

The blond's vacant eyes stared unblinkingly back at him, the glimmer he'd often seen there now entirely absent. A breeze pushed at the unruly locks on his golden crown limply.

"Naruto?" He'd tried again, this time more urgency braided into his tone. The panic that he'd felt so unforgivably memorable as a child as he watched his parents die, and then when he himself had slain Itachi, these feelings that he'd feared he see once again now boiled in full heat to the surface. With the panic came anger.

Behind the blond, or more specifically to say that lay beside him, he could now see another figure forming. Porcelain skin. Dark hair. The perfectly straight and delicate nose of his dear older brother. Itachi's symmetrical face lay inexpressively up at the sky. Blood smeared down from his lax lips. His onyx eyes open, unblinking. And there beside him were two more people. Sasuke's mother, his father. Their heads leaned against each other feebly. Their bodies limp.

He heard a laugh, deep and sinister from inside of his head. Bouncing off the inside of his skull and magnifying. He clutched at his temples, groaning aloud when the volume only rose. Louder and louder until his eyes could no longer remain on the faces of his loved ones. So loud until he screamed mutely, the sound being overtaken. Fear pulsed through Sasuke like poison. Anger blinded him. Hate boiled deeper.

And then suddenly, he was sitting up quickly, dazedly, in the dark interior of his bedroom. Awoken from his dream by the very hammering of his own heart.

He heaved as he tried to regain his breath. His head felt light. His lips were dry. To observe the tremors in his body he held a hand up, which only moments before had been there, but now he was met with nothing but the stump at his bicep moving up at the command. He sat there for a while. Tired, numb. Shaking with adrenaline when he wiped the wet hair from his face and rubbed at his brow. That dream had gone from hot to the biggest boner killer he think he'd ever had. It took all the love he'd ever felt in his life, and the pain that came because of it, and shoved it back in his face. The aching emotions resurfaced. For some reason, he felt the inexplainable need to cry.

A knock on his front door, hesitant and slow, drew his mind back to reality. He recognized the chakra signature instantly. He recognized the familiar warmth that bled towards him like sunlight. He raced to the door, unaware of the unmistakable desperation that lined his face. He flung the door open, and there stood Naruto. Alive. Not dead like he'd only just seen him in his dream minutes before.

Naruto's blue eyes, his electrifying blue eyes that gave Sasuke so much life, were twitching over his face. Down his soaking clothed chest. There was worry in those eyes, and there was fear.

"Sasuke..." Naruto's voice came out breathlessly, however this sound was different than when he'd said his name in his dream.

The dream. Sasuke was thinking about the dream again. He was thinking of the way those eyes had turned gray as the life had left them. He bit his lip as it began to quiver. The emotions were fresh, but he  _would not_ show that to Naruto.

And then suddenly, before Sasuke could do anything to stop it, Naruto's arms were wrapped around his shoulders. Sasuke stiffened, his immediate response being to push Naruto away slowly dissolved. He blinked, confused. He was  _certain_ he'd woken up from that dream though...

"What happened?" Naruto's voice continued cautiously by his ear. His arms remained blanketed around Sasuke, shielding him from the fear he'd felt control him in the dream. Sasuke was completely still. Frozen, if you will. Highly conscious of the fact that that earth-shattering quaking sound was indeed only the blood pounding through his ears and not a colossal demon coming to kill them.

"Why're you here?" Sasuke asked slowly.

Naruto pulled back, his embrace unfolded. There was a pause in which Naruto held his gaze. Paralyzing him with orbs of electric blue. The blond's expression was serious with concern. His hands were then stuffed into his pant pockets.

"I thought something was wrong." Naruto answered simply. "So I came."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Naruto... came to check on him? Was it because Sasuke's emotional control slipped while he was dreaming?

"I don't need your help." Sasuke answered.

Naruto's jaw clenched. But this time, unlike after the many other times recently when Naruto had let Sasuke have his space, Naruto's gaze remained firm.

"... Hey, Sasuke. We're friends, right?"

It was a simple question, but still Sasuke rolled his eyes. He nearly turned and walked away. Was that not obvious to the blond idiot? Did Naruto seriously not see how profoundly Sasuke cared about him? But something kept him rooted in place. He'd pushed Naruto away like this before, wary of this new terrain called 'trust' when he wasn't entirely sure how to begin venturing. He'd pulled back from the tiny intimate touches, and returned Naruto's questions with silence and ambiguity. Hell, he's been pushing Naruto away from him for his whole life. And only now, now when he realized he needs Naruto more than anything does he refrain from ending these pointless efforts to push away and push away and push away. Why couldn't he just try... being? For once in his life. Why must he continue to be so callous and cold? He was once again brought back to their almost-deathbed at the Final Valley, when he'd come to the realization that this love that he felt and feared, it wasn't going to make him weaker. In fact, it was the love he still felt that made continuing to live worthwhile at all.

Naruto was an idiot. A handsome, happy, powerful idiot, but an idiot all the same. He wasn't going to know Sasuke's affections if Sasuke didn't even  _try_ to let the blond in, even a little bit. Sasuke thought he was crazy for falling for someone like Naruto. And yet, he'd never felt more sure of anything in his life.

"Yeah." Sasuke heard himself say, quiet and terse. He knew it to be true, deep down. Even if, when asked in a situation very much like the one now, he would've normally never admitted it. But as he spoke he wondered if something inside of him had changed, like a switch being flipped. Was this really okay to let Naruto in? To show vulnerability? Sasuke was tired of trying. He was shaken from the dream. He needed Naruto's comfort, and Naruto's warmth.

"It was only a bad dream." Sasuke confided when Naruto's relentless blue eyes teased it out of him.

"Do you... like... wanna talk about it?" Sasuke belatedly noticed the tinge of pink blooming behind Naruto's scars, so petrified as he was by Naruto's gaze.

"I don't see what there is to talk about. It was a dream, a hallucination. That's all."

"You just seemed, y'know, really upset." Naruto shifted from foot to foot. "I thought I could help if you wanted."

"By... talking." He monotoned, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Naruto became flustered.

"Yeah, I mean, sometimes it helps?"

Sasuke stared blankly at him.

"Okay, then, fine, you bastard! Maybe I won't help!" Naruto retaliated, however he appeared to be more frustrated than angry. Naruto had turned away and began stomping towards the outdoor staircase. And in Sasuke's chest, he knew he didn't want Naruto to leave. Not yet. Not after the dream he'd just had, and the raw emotions that were still ever present within him now. He'd seen Naruto's lifeless body only minutes before in his dreamscape. And now that he knew he was surely in reality, he needed to confirm that the dream had been only just that. A dream.

Swiftly, he gripped Naruto's wrist before the blond could get far enough away. The tanned skin was warm beneath his fingers. The warmth shot warnings to his head, telling him to let go, that it was weird that Naruto had stopped moving at the contact. Although he couldn't see himself, when Naruto turned those blue eyes back onto Sasuke in confusion, Sasuke's expression was fearful, his face as white as a sheet.

It was at that moment that Sasuke realized he didn't know what to say. He'd been clever and quick-witted his whole life. And now, when faced with the full honesty of his affections, he wasn't sure how to react.

"What?" Naruto asked unintelligibly when they'd stood there, Sasuke's firm grip still held about Naruto's wrist, for far longer than was considered normal.

Sasuke's eyes were still wide and fearful. Anxious thoughts brewed within his head. It was interesting, really, how a young man who'd been considered a perfect prodigy his whole life had devolved into a lovesick idiot by, in fact, another idiot.

"... Don't."

"Eh?"

Sasuke closed his eyes. He needed to say it, and he wasn't sure if it was the embarrassment of being vulnerable in front of his rival, or just the sheer fact that he was finally speaking his mind to the one he loved that made him hesitate momentarily.

"... Don't go."

There was stillness. And there was silence. Sasuke opened his eyes to gauge Naruto's reaction. And Naruto looked back at him in what appeared to be moronic confusion.

"Yeah, okay." Naruto said simply. Then he brushed passed Sasuke and invited himself into Sasuke's home, as though this was something habitual that they did all the time.

Sasuke was dumbstruck. That was it? It was that simple? Why had it taken him so much effort to just invite Naruto into his home? Sasuke cursed himself, and followed after Naruto inside after a moment of displeasure with himself. As he did, however, he felt a flare of chakra from the rooftop opposite, where the ANBU who surveyed him usually camped out. He sensed more than usual, perhaps ten or fifteen, that circled the apartment. They were being watched, and the lack of privacy made him irate. He locked the door behind him, even knowing it wouldn't do much anyway.

"So. Do you want me in the living room or-- oooh, maybe the bedroom so I can read you stories to make you sleep, huh, Sasuke?"

"Tch." Sasuke ignored Naruto's teasing and found himself a glass of water in the kitchen. Naruto followed him.

"Are you feeling okay now?" Naruto's tone was more gentle now, like he was prodding a touchy subject. It was kind of a weird side of Naruto that Sasuke hadn't really seen before. This tenderness and kindness. Naruto had always had good intentions, but he was also brash and loud and obnoxious. And right now, Naruto was none of those things. Sasuke was intrigued. He watched Naruto with new interest.

"Hn."

"Y'know, I don't have nightmares anymore, but when I was a kid I got them a ton."

Sasuke frowned, and it took Naruto a moment before he saw his mistake.

"I don't mean you're, like, a kid or something, y'know-- I just--"

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes. Only now realizing just how uncomfortable his sweat-soaked shirt was. He turned back to his bedroom, pulling his shirt from his back in one swift movement. He could've sworn he felt Naruto's eyes on him as he briefly disappeared and reappeared bearing a new plain white tee over his shoulders. He belatedly realized the encompassing silence that fell over the boys then.

"I dreamt of my family." Sasuke said to diffuse the sudden tension in the room. Naruto's eyes had before been looking anywhere but Sasuke upon reentry, but now they were back on him. Strong and unwavering. And Sasuke couldn't bring himself to look away from him. "They were all dead." He stated colourlessly. "I let myself feel sorry for it, which is pointless. Feeling sad won't bring the dead back to life."

Naruto had moved to the edge of his seat were he'd been previously lounged out on the sofa. His hands were clasped in his lap. His eyes were large, but focused.

"I don't think feeling sad is pointless at all. Feeling sad means you loved them, and love isn't something that will ever truly leave."

Sasuke blinked. Did that seriously just come from Naruto's mouth? When had the blond stopped being an idiot and began saying wise shit like that? But then Naruto was continuing, and Sasuke felt his heart stop.

"I've dreamt about people dying before as well, Sasuke. I've dreamed about you, too, y'know." Naruto confided. "But when I wake up, I know it's okay. Because you're still here with me. And Kakashi-sensei, and Iruka-sensei, and Sakura... All of you are still here with me. I realize I don't have to feel so alone anymore." Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Although sometimes I worry about you, y'know. Old habits die hard, I guess."

Sasuke felt like he'd been punched in the gut from that last part. The fact that knowing the extent of which Naruto constantly worried about him seemed more real now than it ever had when Sasuke'd been on the run for the past four years. He knew the pain Naruto said he'd always felt for Sasuke to be real now. Naruto cared about Sasuke. Deeply. That much was attainable. And it was that reason that hurt Sasuke so.

But what Naruto said next made Sasuke almost shatter his resolve entirely.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry coming home has been hard for you."

Sasuke blinked. He was silent for a long time. Naruto looked tired, and maybe a little sad.

After all these years of chasing, fighting, pleading, and arguing with Sasuke about returning to the Leaf, now that he was finally home Naruto was apologizing?

"It was my choice." Sasuke replied.

Naruto nodded. "I know." He cleared his throat. The serious expression he had before now flooding with a little colour. "And, I'm-- er... I'm sorry that yesterday I, y'know... It's just I feel like I don't know how to act around you... I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable after sparring."

Sasuke smirked.  _That_ was the Naruto he remembered. The unintelligible idiot.

"It's fine." He heard himself say. Naruto's eyes were on him once again. Curiosity played within the blue there.

Naruto coughed. Looking a little shocked at Sasuke's sudden honesty. Sasuke himself felt the same way. Then Naruto was speaking again.

"And I'm sorry I haven't been there for you since we got back, too, y'know. I said I wanted to help you, and I really meant it. I can be doing more-- I mean, if you don't mind it."

Sasuke smirked. "What's with all of the sudden apologies?" His voice dripped with sarcasm. "Out of the month since the war's ended, I've been in solitary for half of it, and you've been unconscious for part of it. It's foolish to blame yourself for what's not in your control. After all this time, you're still a hopeless idiot, you loser."

"Wha-- Hey! I was just trying to be nice, you bastard!" Naruto crossed his arms and pouted, much like a child throwing a tantrum would. "And I meant what I said about that I can be a better friend to you, y'know. I--I want to be a better friend to you..."

"Hn."

"Besides..." Naruto's head turned away from him. "I mean... I kinda like being around you."

"As if that wasn't obvious."

Naruto's head whipped back at him, the fire returned. "Bastard!"

"You've pestered me your whole life. You even chased me around the world. Yeah, I'm sure it was because of my natural charm, Naruto."

Instead of the quick retort or outburst Sasuke was expecting, however, Naruto only held his gaze. A long moment passed.

"... Why did you come home, Sasuke?" Naruto finally asked.

Sasuke held his breath. He knew Naruto would ask someday. The exact reason that made Sasuke snap out of it after their fight at the Final Valley. Why he had inevitably admitted defeat to Naruto, and surrendered to his feelings. But it was more than that even. Along with his love, Naruto had given Sasuke hope. He'd opened Sasuke's narrowed view of the world, and helped him to realize it wasn't too late to turn back. That eradicating the love from his life didn't have to be the only way out.

Sasuke smirked, hiding the knot of reemerging emotions beneath a confident facade.

"Every man has his secrets."

Naruto held his gaze. His expression serious. And in that moment, Sasuke knew he'd have to come clean at some point in the future. But for now, in the hour after he'd just dreamed of the light fading from Naruto's eyes, and after the love and fear he'd felt because of it was still so palpable in the air he breathed, there was no fucking way he was going to tell Naruto the reason he had returned to Konoha in the end  _was for him._

Naruto seemed to understand Sasuke wasn't going to share anything further tonight. Naruto grinned. A fake grin that didn't reach his eyes. And then he spoke.

"Hey... Sasuke. Do you remember in the hospital room a few days ago, when I'd just woken up from my coma?" Naruto's voice was gentle, soothing. His eyes calculating the raven carefully.

Sasuke looked away. How could he forget?

"What about it?"

"You were finally paying attention to me then. You were looking at me, and talking to me, and for the first time in a long time, I felt like your mind wasn't off somewhere else. I was so happy." He chuckled around the words. Then only a light smile fell on his lips. His gaze now heavy as it transported the blond somewhere far away.

"I didn't think you'd be taken down that easily. It seems like I should've been studying sealing jutsu instead of turning to Orochimaru after all."

Naruto pouted. The frustration that Sasuke enjoyed toying with had now replaced the blond's momentary peaceful expression.

"Yeah?! Well  _you_ wouldn't have been much better off! Don't think you're any better than me, bastard."

Sasuke smirked. "I wouldn't have had a seal placed on me in the first place, loser. How could you have been so careless, anyway? It's almost impressive."

"How was I supposed to know? Have you ever had some magic chakra draining seal put on you before? Of course not! How could I have prepared for something like that, huh?"

"I would've thought the _hero_ of the Leaf village was untouchable." Sasuke mused. Naruto sneered at the 'hero' part. "I guess I was mistaken."

The blond's fists clenched. His brows pinched.

"I could've died, Sasuke! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

In Naruto's voice there was a little bit of strain, like instead of just pointless whining this had actually come from somewhere deeper. Sasuke frowned a bit.

If only Naruto had known the fear that held Sasuke's heart at knifepoint when he'd first watched Naruto fall in the clearing that day. If only he'd known how Sasuke wept by his bedside, only when they were completely alone, because the thought that this may in fact be the last time he shared with the blond was too heavy a thought to harbour. He couldn't live without Naruto by his side, because to Sasuke, Naruto was what made living worthwhile at all.

"If you didn't die when I tried to kill you after our fight at the Final Valley, I don't think anything ever will." Sasuke said instead. Naruto was strong. Stronger than even he. Because Naruto had purpose that Sasuke no longer had.

"Well you might just die from a punch to the face if you don't stop being so  _damn cocky_ all the time, you bastard!" Naruto shouted, his loud voice surely waking Sasuke's neighbours. "If our places had been switched, I don't know what I would've--..." 

Naruto heaved. He'd stood to his feet in his glint of anger. He looked off to the side, avoiding Sasuke's baffled, albeit engrossed, attention. Silence hung heavy. Sasuke licked his lips, now, he too, looking away from the other boy in the room. Naruto sat back down slowly. His hands clasped in his lap. Sasuke peered at him from the corner of his eye.

"... Sorry." Naruto spoke quietly. He chewed his lip. "I just care about you, that's all. You should know that."

Sasuke watched him. The silence stretched on.

"I know."

Naruto fidgeted. He looked nervous. It puzzled Sasuke.

"And it's not cause of Ashura and Indra, either, y'know." The blond said. "I care about  _you,_ Sasuke. I--... I..."

Sasuke tried in vain to ignore the way his heart lurched at that. He tried to ignore the pounding of the blood in his ears and the way his hands felt clammy with nervousness. He controlled his breathing. He studied the blond. He admired his friend.

"... I know." He replied, shocked, as Naruto's electrifying blue gaze once again placed him under it's incredible sight after a moment. "... Thank you." His voice was small. Vulnerable. Heartfelt. Naruto smiled at him.

They sensed the foreign chakra signature before they even heard the loud rap on the door. Sasuke reached out. He'd never sensed this particular chakra signature before. He and Naruto exchanged a look. But it was Naruto who stood up first, seemingly less concerned about the person who knocked than he. Together, they retraced their steps back to the front door of his apartment. Sasuke's hair stood up on end. When they opened it, behind they were faced with an ANBU woman. Tall, fair skin, and long black hair pulled up into a ponytail. She bore a decorated cat mask that hid her identity. Her eyes shifted from Naruto to Sasuke, where they remained. She was fairly unreadable, but if Sasuke could guess, she was wary of his presence.

"Good evening." Her tone was robotic and flat. "Naruto, the Hokage has summoned you to the hospital. It seems as though Lady Tsunade has returned from her mission. They wish for you to listen in on the debrief."

Naruto's expression twisted with confusion. "Granny Tsunade's back? But why do they need me?"

"I don't have access to that information. I was told only to retrieve you."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke. He saw excitement and relief there, but also hesitation.

"What about Sasuke?" Naruto's face was still turned to look at the raven as he spoke. 

Sasuke knew why they would have summoned Naruto. They were grooming him for the responsibilities of the Hokage by allowing him more flexibility in confidential matters. Kakashi was unconventional like that, Sasuke wasn't really surprised. Besides, Naruto was their glorified hero. It was his duty to act in accordance to people's perception of him now. Sasuke on the other hand... well, he didn't exactly have the same respect as Naruto in that regard. Not that he necessarily cared what the village, or even the world thought of him. To Sasuke, only one person mattered above all else.

He opened his mouth to tell Naruto to just shut up and leave, when instead all at once he felt the air sucked out of him. Freezing icy-cold air filled him. A prickling sensation flew up his spine. The muscles in his chest began searing like they'd been sliced by kunai. The coldness, which had first started at his core, spread rapidly to his toes and fingertips. The coldness became a numbing sensation. And then suddenly, in the time of a blink of the eye, he felt as though he were floating within his very skin.

Sasuke felt panicked. He didn't understand what was happening. He tried to speak, to yell. Anything to get the intensive alarm he felt inside to come across to the blond boy who watched him with that same hesitant look as before. Could Naruto not tell? Sasuke's expression was blank, as it always was, and he cursed that his face always made him so inexpressible. The creeping numbness took hold of his tongue. It took hold of his lungs. And lastly, it took hold of his sight. In the midst of a split second, Sasuke vision went black, and he was cast into nothingness.

 

*

 

Tsunade paced impatiently behind her desk while they waited in silence. She was stained red in places from where she'd been unable to scrub Yamato's blood from her skin and clothes in the short breaks they took as they'd rushed home. Her hair was knotted. Her feet were sore. Her back ached. And she was _furious._

Kakashi was lounged out in a chair across from her, his feet perched up on her desk. At a first glance, he looked as if he held not a care in the world. But upon closer inspection, he was just very deep in thought. Tsunade had insisted on informing Kakashi and Naruto of what had transpired only once they were all together. She knew that was a difficult request to make of Kakashi, who moments before had been visibly shocked by the bloodied and defeated appearances of his allies and friends, particularly Yamato, who at the moment was being cared for by Sakura in the ER. Shizune was aiding her as well, stepping back into her professional routine as soon as they made it through the door.

They'd only just made it back not five minutes ago. Organized chaos erupted within the quiet interior of the hospital as though zapped back to life by the dire situation they'd presented the staff with. Tsunade, of course, had been barking orders swiftly and efficiently until Yamato had been wheeled away by Sakura and Shizune. And then Tsunade had rounded on Kakashi, who'd watched everything unfold with passive intrigue and a shocked expression.

A sharp buzz of chakra crackled in the air in the centre of her office space. The ANBU guard who Kakashi had just sent to retrieve Naruto reappeared. But instead of only one companion, she reappeared with two. Sasuke Uchiha remained as unreadable as ever as his eyes slowly shifted from Tsunade to Kakashi and then back again. Naruto had stepped quickly across the room towards the desk.

"Granny? What's all this, why'd you call us here...?" And then Naruto's eyes took in the blood stains that darkened the light gray of her top, and his expression became worried. "What happened to you?"

"This isn't my blood. It's Yamato's." Tsunade answered, as if that clarified anything. She interrupted Naruto when he tried to speak again. "He's alright. A little shaken, but alright. We were attacked, I'll explain everything. But first..." She turned her gaze to Sasuke. "Uchiha. What are you doing here?"

"He insisted he be present--" The ANBU woman began to say, but she was cut off by Naruto.

"Whatever happened to you is an issue that  _both_ me and Sasuke need to hear. Me and him, we're a team." Naruto said the second part with flushed cheeks. Tsunade shook her head in disbelief.

"I don't trust him." She stated firmly, her voice loud. Her bluntness caused the room to stir a bit. Kakashi closed his eyes. Naruto bristled. The ANBU looked confused. "Only Naruto and the Hokage need to hear this information. I don't need it falling into the wrong hands. Take him back."

"You're wrong about him. Sasuke is trustworthy!" Naruto had shouted at the woman. She was taken aback by his sudden ferocity, and by the way the blue in his eyes seemed to burn like fire. She narrowed her eyes, fully prepared to shout back at the boy, when Kakashi spoke instead.

"Naruto's right, Lady Tsunade. We achieve nothing if only one of Naruto or Sasuke knows this information. It's better, for the sake of the future of this peace, that they both know." He levelled her with an unwavering coal-black gaze. His decision was final. She sneered, but didn't oppose as she sat back down in her desk chair.

"Fine."

The ANBU teleported away when Kakashi signalled her to do so. Silence blanketed the room. With a deep sigh through her nostrils, Tsunade's expression became softer, and much less angry. She regarded Naruto with a nod.

"I'm glad to see you're awake from your coma, Naruto. I wasn't sure when you'd wake up but I had a feeling it'd be sooner than I'd initially thought."

Naruto was still tense, but his response lacked the bite his tone had held earlier.

"Yeah. Sakura looked after me really well."

Tsunade nodded. "That's good to hear. Yamato's in safe hands with her now."

"What happened to him, exactly?" Kakashi now asked. Tsunade knew he was interested in the mission, but as she also understood, he and Yamato had known each other for a long time. Kakashi was worried about his friend, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"Blood loss. He'll recover just fine, Sakura's just healing him properly now since I didn't get the chance to do it well enough while we were out there."

"Blood loss?"

Tsunade's eyes became clouded then as she recalled the memory.

"Yes. He slit his own throat." She said quietly at first. "It was lucky the blood began clotting. Most of the time, an injury like that is unquestionably fatal."

"I'm sorry... He... attempted suicide?" Kakashi's eyes were wide. Behind those black eyes, deep thought brewed in his head.

"That just doesn't sound like something Captain Yamato would do." Naruto said firmly. His jaw was clenched. His fists balled.

"Well, he did, and he didn't. That's where things get complicated." Tsunade replied. "He was being controlled, no question there. He'd killed his men, the sight was... cruel. There was nothing left of them."

Kakashi bowed his head. The two boys remained silent.

"To me, this controlling jutsu looked highly similar to the Yamanaka clan's mind transfer jutsu. Whoever was controlling Yamato was speaking and acting through him. Although to me it seems the only difference was that in the Yamanaka clan's jutsu, the target, if you will, is consciously aware that they're being controlled. But for Yamato, he couldn't remember any of it, as though he'd been unconscious the entire time."

"So whoever was controlling Captain Yamato had killed his men and then tried to kill him?" Naruto asked as he tried to work things out.

"It appears that way, yes."

"Hm." Kakashi scrubbed a hand through his wild white hair. "What of the mission? Did you complete it?"

Tsunade blinked. And then she cackled, much like a witch.

"No. We failed." She answered once she was done. "Yamato... or,  _not_ Yamato burned the scroll before he slit his throat. I don't exactly understand why he'd do such a thing though."

"What scroll?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between Kakashi and Tsunade. Both older shinobi looked towards Sasuke, who'd remained silent and absorbing all of the information thus far.

"The mission was to retrieve Madara Uchiha's body from after the war. We couldn't have the wrong hands getting ahold of it again." Tsunade replied.

Kakashi continued. "But we also thought there was a chance Lady Tsunade would be able to make an arm from Madara's cells, much like she did for you with the First Hokage's cells, Naruto. This arm would be for Sasuke."

Naruto looked at Tsunade. "You... wanted to help Sasuke?"

Tsunade snorted, her tone unempathetic. "Well there's no way it's happening now. Sorry, Uchiha. I'm afraid you'll be like this for the rest of your life."

Sasuke didn't answer her. She sneered at him.

"A 'thank you' wouldn't hurt for trying, you know." She muttered. She turned her attention back to Kakashi. "Yamato's assailant said something before he burned the scroll though. Something along the lines of 'Madara was a fool'. What do you think that means?"

Kakashi pondered. "... I'm not sure."

They heard pounding footsteps in the hallway, and then the door to Tsunade's office was being thrown open. Bursting through was a flush-faced Sakura. Her pink hair fell messily from her spiky ponytail. Four pairs of eyes looked up at her intrusion.

"Lady Tsunade, I--"

"Sakura, why aren't you with Yamato?"

"I'm sorry, but Shizune is taking care of him for the moment." She panted. "I found something you should see."

Sakura was acknowledging the other people in the room now. Her cheeks flamed red when her gaze fell on Sasuke momentarily. Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"Can it wait?"

"It-It's important." Sakura looked at Kakashi. There was excitement in her eyes when she spoke to him. "Kakashi-sensei. I figured it out. I figured out how Mr Fumihiro died."

Naruto stepped in, his expression serious. "You mean old geezer Fumihiro? He's... dead?" Naruto's voice grew. "How? How could this happen? I was with him only a few hours ago! Kakashi-sensei, did you know about this?"

Kakashi regarded Naruto with a solemn nod. Then he turned back to address Sakura.

"And?" Kakashi asked patiently.

Sakura was smiling a little, despite the grim situation they discussed.

"After we spoke earlier, I couldn't get the thought that I'd overlooked something out of my head. Yamato's asleep now, and Shizune offered to watch him while I reported back to you, Lady Tsunade, but instead I went back to the morgue." She admitted. "The seal on Naruto's wrist had given me an idea, I wondered if maybe I'd missed some sort of chakra depletion during the autopsy, but--"

"Just get on with it." Tsunade snapped, her mouth set in a frustrated scowl.

Sakura looked to Kakashi again. Her emerald eyes shining. "There's a seal on his forearm."

The room was quiet for a moment. Naruto looked confused. Sasuke was silent. Kakashi narrowed his eyes. And Tsunade's bitter expression from before had smoothed out, her mouth hung open slightly.

"Show us." Tsunade's big voice commanded suddenly. Each person in the room looked at her as she spoke. Then she jumped from her chair and strode purposefully passed the men and into the hallway with Sakura.

Kakashi followed after next with Naruto swiftly behind him. Sasuke brought up the rear.

In the morgue they were presented with the cold, graying corpse of an older gentleman laid upon a silver table. A thin white sheet lay overtop of his body to obscure the incisions underneath.

"Who was he?" Tsunade asked as they approached expeditiously.

"He's believed to be the person that put the chakra draining seal on Naruto." Kakashi answered from behind the two women.

"So what's the purpose of his death then?"

"I suspect it was an assassination, although there's nothing proving it was as of yet."

Naruto walked slowly towards the silver table, his sights set on the deceased old man laying motionless upon it. 

"An assassination?" Tsunade asked, although it was more of a reiteration as she tried to wrap her head around everything. Her hands glowed green with chakra that she ran over his arm where Sakura pointed out the seal to be. She frowned when her hands ran over it. This seal was different from Naruto's, and yet the make up was similar. While Naruto's had been glaringly obvious, this one was faint. As though the purpose of it was to obscure itself, and, perhaps, any other damages done underneath. She checked over the rest of his body, finding nothing out of the ordinary that would be a normal cause of death.

"You're right, Sakura. There's a seal, but it's faint, which is odd."

"I found no probable cause of death either, so I thought maybe that seal was blocking my medical ninjutsu or something." Sakura replied to her mentor.

"I don't think that's it." She said as she stepped back. Then she strode from the room and returned from her office with a large scroll tucked under her elbow.

"That's the scroll you used to remove Naruto's seal, right? Is this seal powerful as well?" Sakura asked studiously, her eyes tracking the older woman's movements like this were a particularly interesting lesson.

"It appears so. I've never seen a seal quite like this before."

The scroll was rolled out overtop the old man's body. It was large, covering his head, his torso, and partway down his legs. Sheltering him like a blanket. When it'd been rolled out, a splotch of spiky raven hair appeared in her periphery. For the first time since arriving at the hospital, Sasuke was showing interest.

Tsunade preformed the proper hand signs written on the inscription on the side and pushed chakra into the formula. A familiar ethereal glow flowed from the seal and slowly engulfed the old man. From beside her Sasuke's eyes were wide and sparkling with unusual fascination. His onyx black iris reflected the glow from the reverse sealing formula until it faded completely. Sasuke's gaze then turned to the inscriptions on the side. An eery grin pulled on his lips.

A shiver shot up Tsunade's spine. She frowned at him. This wasn't Sasuke's first time seeing this scroll before. He'd been there when she'd first used it on Naruto. If anything it should be Naruto that was more curious than the rest of them.

She was jogged from her skepticism of the Uchiha brat when Sakura had begun rolling the scroll back up, revealing the man underneath. Tsunade's hands flared to life with green chakra as she inspected the arm once again. A deep frown marred her face as she did so. Sakura placed the scroll to the side, and inspected the arm herself. She gasped.

Beneath the surface of his skin, piercing through the anatomical veil and searching for the chakra network deep below, they found thorough destruction. A normal chakra network would usually weave like thread throughout the entire body of a person, with a variety of main pathways that led from the head downwards. However, and strangely enough, this man's chakra network was gone. Or more specifically, it had been burnt into near nothingness.

Tsunade informed the men behind her. Kakashi took a cautious step beside her at the table. Naruto froze. Sasuke backed away. 

"So it was... fried?" Naruto asked.

"Overstimulated. Basically so much chakra was absorbed into his body that his network couldn't handle the stress and destroyed itself."

"Absorbed, or perhaps forced into his body." Kakashi suggested lowly.

Tsunade nodded her head in agreement. "Yes. Perhaps."

From behind them, they heard a wet gasping sound. Accompanied by the sound of coughing. As they turned, they registered Naruto's hesitant voice.

"Sasuke...?"

The Uchiha's eyes widened, his sole onyx iris impossibly small. His brow was suddenly slick with sweat. His hands shook uncontrollably. His chest was heaving. His gaze darted around the room, skittish and dazed, like cornered prey too drunk on adrenaline to think logically. It was as though he'd been possessed. Or like he'd been trapped in a nightmare. Which is odd, because only moments before he'd been quiet, and he'd been fine.

Naruto placed his hands on the raven's shoulders, his blue eyes worried as he tried to get Sasuke to look at him.

"What's wrong, you just--"

"Don't  _touch_ me!" The raven spat, shoving the blond backwards to splay out on the floor.

Kakashi's hand immediately hid in the utility pouch around his waist wherein it surely clutched a weapon. Tsunade and Sakura looked on, bewildered, and not as reactive to Sasuke's outburst as the Hokage had been.

"What is going on here!?" Tsunade boomed, her eyes hard and trained on the Uchiha. Something was wrong, he was gasping for breath. It looked like he was in distress. She took a hesitant step forward. For the first time in her long medical career, she was unsure if she should act or not. She glanced at Kakashi, who was treating Sasuke's reaction like he were viewing a wild animal. She looked to Naruto, who's expression was desperate with concern. It wasn't that she didn't want to save Sasuke particularly, only that she was afraid of how unpredictable he would react if she approached him now.

"Sasuke?" Naruto's voice was shaking with worry, his whole body frozen and hesitating as he remained on the floor.

Sasuke twitched, turning quickly to face behind him, skittishly looking up at the ceiling, then the door. His eyes were wild. Then his gaze connected with Naruto's, and nearly instantly the jumpy behaviour left. He was composed once more. He heaved a little, his pale skin shimmering above his brow and lip. He glanced over at the others in the room, his eyes wide, riddled with confusion and... was that fear?

"Sasuke?" It was Kakashi's voice that spoke this time. Kakashi remained where he stood. Sasuke turned his gaze over to the taller man. "Are you... okay?"

From beside Tsunade, Sakura dropped to her knees, distraught. Sasuke looked down at her distantly. He breathed heavily. In fact, everywhere he looked seemed rather distant, like he wasn't entirely here. It was... concerning. It looked a little like shock.

"Sakura, get up." Tsunade commanded, her voice low. Her eyes remained on Sasuke. "Go take over for Shizune on healing Yamato and send her home, please. It's been a long night." 

Sakura looked up at her mentor in alarm. "But I can--"

Tsunade was already interrupting her. "Naruto, I'd like you to give Kakashi, Sasuke and I some privacy for a moment. Can you wait just outside?"

Naruto looked fearfully at her. "What!? No, of course I'm not--"

"Naruto." Kakashi warned. His tone firm. Naruto hesitated. His jaw clenched. Then he rose to his feet and pulled Sakura up as well, leading her out the door reluctantly.

Sasuke watched them go, and took a slow step to follow. It was odd for Tsunade to see those three act like this. She'd always known Sakura's affection for the Uchiha, and she knew Naruto's loyalty to him, which to her at least, had always seemed rather pointless. But seeing Sasuke himself, when he was fragile like this, act like he couldn't be apart from his teammates threw Tsunade for a bit of a loop. For Sakura at least, Tsunade knew when things were tough Sakura needed a task to preform to help her think of something else. Watching Sasuke like that may have been difficult for her. She'd be better off caring for Yamato than dwelling on the scene that'd just happened. As for Naruto, she didn't want him getting in the way of some answers.

Usually standard procedure would be to treat for shock and a general mental state examination. But for this boy, standard procedure didn't apply. Because unlike most, it was entirely within his capabilities to kill them in an instant.

"Uchiha." She stated firmly when the door had swung shut behind Naruto and Sakura, finally addressing the elephant in the room. "Are you alright?"

She began to take a step forward, but was blocked by Kakashi holding an arm out in front of her, for obvious reasons. Sasuke's back was to them. She couldn't read his expression, but if she could guess, he was staring at the door with longing.

"... I'm fine." Sasuke's voice broke.

"What happened back there, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked this time. It seemed like Kakashi knew how to deal with this sort of thing, perhaps because of his plethora of experience from the cruelty of war, Tsunade assumed.

Sasuke paused before answering. His tone, this time, sounded close to his normal sarcastic drawl.

"Nothing."

Tsunade sneered, her anger finding it's way to the surface.  _"Nothing?_ Seriously,  _nothing?"_ To her, it'd looked far too paranormal to be considered nothing. "You understand if you'd lost control the Kage would have no choice but to--"

"It won't come to that." Kakashi advocated sternly. He looked back at Sasuke. "You weren't yourself back there, Sasuke. Can you tell us what happened?"

Sasuke's voice came out slow. "I'm not sure."

It sounded as though he were thinking it through himself. What had caused him to react that way in the first place?

"Can I go now?" Sasuke said after a long moment of Tsunade and Kakashi eyeing him dubiously.

Tsunade opened her mouth to argue. Can he  _go?_ She was ready to strap him down to a table. But Kakashi had already spoken.

"Yes, you may."

Without looking back at either of them, Sasuke left the room. They heard the clear sound of immediate relief and underlying worry in Naruto's voice when the raven and he reunited.

The door swung shut. Tsunade glared at Kakashi. Did he not see the threat in letting Sasuke go free immediately after that? At the very _least,_ he should be looked at and treated for shock. Damn it, this was _her_ hospital. Kakashi shouldn't have the right to make those kinds of calls. Sasuke was dangerous. And he was unstable. She could see that clearly now. It made her nervous.

Before she could bring any of this up, Kakashi silenced her with a held hand.

"Please. I don't need to hear it tonight."

She scowled. "Fine. But this incident proves he has the capabilities to be a threat to the village. He wasn't in control. You're not actually considering letting this slide, are you? He was panicking and confused, what if he acts out? What if he can't tell friend from foe anymore? Just know that your judgement is putting thousands of lives on the line." Tsunade scolded him, immediately ignoring her promise not to do so.

Kakashi levelled her then, unperturbed by the rage in her eyes. Braided in his voice was tendrils of his own anger.

"He is a  _boy._ Not a monster. It seems people have forgotten that over time."

"Well you seem to forget that that  _boy_ has the power to wipe us all from the map if he pleased!"

"Sasuke wouldn't do something like that anymore. He's changed for the better."

"You call  _that_ changing for the better?" She said hysterically. "Honestly, Kakashi. I know you care for him, but if he becomes a threat to our safety there's not much choice on the matter."

"He wasn't himself just now. Sasuke isn't the type to lose his cool like that." Kakashi argued. "As long as he's with Naruto, he'll be fine."

"Why? Because Naruto can babysit him for us? Because Naruto can act as the executioner if things get out of control again? No. What I saw just now was mental debilitation. Something is seriously wrong with that boy. People don't act like they've just been to hell and back for shits and giggles, you understand?"

Kakashi sighed, knowing to some extent, and especially after what they'd just witnessed, she was right.

"Anyone would be mentally torn apart by the daily life he's living, even now when we're seemingly in a time of peace. But in saying that, we also have to remember Sasuke and Naruto aren't just like anyone else." Kakashi said. "This is a delicate part of Sasuke's life. Right now he's at his most vulnerable, and no, I don't mean physically. I agree with you in that aspect. He's traumatized, as anyone would be with a past like his."

Kakashi spoke from the heart, once again feeling the pain of his past take control of him. He'd always thought he and Sasuke had led similar lives, and now he knew it to be true. He continued.

"Right now, he's been presented with the choice to change his path forever. Naruto brought him back from the brink. Sasuke's already had his time in the darkness, and it's time we all forgave him for it to help him  _move on._  Ultimately, however, it's up to him with what path he'll end up taking. Fighting with Naruto at the Final Valley changed Sasuke, I can tell that he's seeing the world differently now, but all of that is a process, it doesn't happen all at once. He needs to be helped by us, not pushed away or punished when he steps out of line."

Tsunade scowled. "That's just the shinobi way." She said tersely.

"Well then the shinobi way is wrong." Kakashi's voice rose, and Tsunade hesitated with a retort. "Sasuke has everything going against him. This is supposed to be a time of peace yet we still choose to point fingers and cause more pain. Sasuke has nothing anymore. No clan to call his own, no family to go back to. No guidance. No direction. He will forever be an outcast because the village deems him so. He's reminded everyday of the things he's done. For the rest of us, we can choose to forget. But for him... he's never even been offered that choice. You say what we saw just now is unacceptable, but when you look at what may have led up to it it becomes a different story. We as a village, and as a community have driven Sasuke to this."

"He hasn't been back long enough for the village to affect him to that extent. I feel like I'm the only one who saw him have what could've surely been a psychotic break just a few minutes ago!"

Kakashi sighed. "Lady Tsunade. I'm not turning a blind eye if that's what you're concerned about." He said. "I'm asking for your cooperation."

She paused. She looked a little offended.

"You say that like I'm some tyrant."

"No, I'm saying it because helping Sasuke can start with you. I agree with you, there was more going on back there than what meets the eye, meaning something inside his own head drove him to react in that way. You're a doctor. Isn't there anything you can do that would help him to prevent this sort of thing in the future?"

Tsunade regarded him for a moment. Her gaze fell to the side. She finally spoke after a few tense minutes of silence.

"He needs help, but I'm not the one that can give it to him. I don't have training in the therapist side of things, if that's what you're inclining towards, for obvious reasons."

She paused again for a long while, thinking their conversation over. Realizing now, in the midst of her anger at Kakashi's leniency and her fear of the power Sasuke could use to unleash on them, she knew now that Kakashi had been right. It was the village's fault... no, more than that... it was the shinobi world's fault that Sasuke had become as he is. His life hadn't been easy, and he'd suffered greatly. That wasn't something someone could bounce back from. And no amount of time can heal wounds that are constantly being reopened. Kakashi had been right. Sasuke was merely a boy. A boy who'd fallen victim to the unforgiving world they lived in. A boy who had lost his way because of it, and a boy whose friend's loyalty to him had brought him back. He was a _boy._ Not a monster.

"I'll talk to Shizune in the morning. She can start on regular sessions with him."

Kakashi nodded his head in thanks. "Thank you, Lady Tsunade. I know what we saw earlier was eye opening. For everyone. Sasuke had lost control, even if it was only for a few moments. I'm just afraid that without the help we can give him, this situation has potential to become much worse. I'm glad we can give him the support he needs."

Tsunade studied him for a moment. Then a grin fondly pulled on her lips.

"Having you look out for him will help him in the long run far more than anything I can do for him will. You said it yourself. As long as he's with Naruto,  _and_ you, and those who care for him, he'll be just fine." She admitted. "And Kakashi, I apologize for my tone. I'm no intentional bigot. Fear tends to make people react certain ways and I was out of line."

Kakashi waved the apology off sheepishly. Then he gestured to her bloodied attire and filthy appearance vaguely.

"You should get some rest. We can debrief your mission in the morning." He told her.

"What about you? This gentleman was assassinated, right? Does that mean you're investigating right now?" She nodded towards the lifeless man on the silvery table behind them.

"I've sent out squads. The village should be safe tonight. These things never happen quickly."

"I might check in with Sakura before I leave. She looks exhausted, I'll send her home now too. Will you check on the boys?"

Kakashi nodded. "Of course. And Sakura did well running the hospital while you were gone. You should be proud."

"She's a highly capable kunoichi and my apprentice. Of course she did well."

"It would be good for her to hear that from you herself sometimes, you know. She idolizes you."

Tsunade chuckled. "She doesn't have much confidence in herself. But as a shinobi she surpassed me long ago." She frowned then, a new thought arising, dark and foreboding. Like something she didn't want to pry into, she stood in silence for a moment.

"Kakashi, the world is changing, and we're handing it off to these... these kids faster than I'd have thought possible. Jiraiya always said that it was our job to aid the next generation, but sometimes I wonder if they're up to the task." She looked up at him. His eyes were focused, listening. She heard the concern in her own voice. "This person I encountered... the one who controlled Yamato... even with all of my lifetime of experience, even with wars I've survived and the lessons taught to me by my sensei the Third Hokage... When I encountered that person, I was still paralyzed and I was still afraid. This world is full of so much pain and so much suffering. It's been passed down through generations, and it only festers as time goes on. I fear this person's hate runs deep. And I fear he's going to become a problem for us in our immediate future whether we fight it or not. I know you believe in the good of people, you've shown that here today with your faith in Sasuke's recovery. Naruto and Sasuke, and the other Great Nations, we have them on our side, and I'm grateful for that. But if the time comes, I hope that you can see that sometimes fighting truly is the only means to understanding. Because although if it seems the world is now at peace, the cycle of war never seems to finally end. And even now, I question whether this peace we have was ever meant to last." 

*

 

He'd underestimated the strength the boy can wield. The power pulsing through veins that were not his. The guilt and pain held within the mind that fought desperately for control against him. He'd heard rumours of the immensity of the boy's abilities, but upon seeing it first hand,  _feeling_ it sear his insides like molten rock within a paper shell as he clung to control for mere moments at a time, he knew that even he had undervalued the _true_ power of a god. And that it utterly terrified him.

His eyelids opened to the real world when the boy's subconscious had impossibly expelled him. His jutsu was supposed to be impregnable. It was outrageous to even consider that the boy could fight back against it, even in as compliant a state as unconsciousness. And yet, the boy had done it. How had his ancestors failed him now? Now, against a  _boy,_ when they had had the ability to once conquer  _nations._  

In the tiniest part of his mind, where he still shared a constant connection with the boy, he could feel the flames of panic set in just as it had earlier that very night. The poor boy must be distraught. His body spent and weak. His mind fragile.  _B_ _reakable._

This boy, this  _Uchiha,_ he wondered how long it would take before he realized he was now indeed the puppet of a puppet master. He knew the window he had would be brief in which he could act before the Uchiha learned it. And that  _scroll_. That damned  _scroll_ that needed to be retrieved from where it was being used leisurely by the dirtied hands of the Leaf. It must return to its proper place. The world must once again return to a state of balance. The scroll is only one small piece of achieving this balance. Yet, ultimately it is those many small pieces that make up the whole.

He lifted his chin, shakily pulling in fresh air as he tried to regain his breath. His heart was racing. Sweat drenched his raggedy faded black tunic along his back and chest. His eyes were now open, but for the moment unseeing. Blind as his body slowly regained its senses. And when his sight returned he saw his companion looking down on him. He could see the moonlight streaming onto the forest floor from above. He looked down at his hands, where moments before there'd only been one, he now saw two. The colour, however, remained a similar porcelain white as the Uchiha's had been.

"You're back, my Lord."

"Katsuo... Please, help me up." He coughed, feeling bile rise in the back of his throat as nausea momentarily overtook him.

His companion joined him by his side. Hands the size of shovels steadied him as he stood upright once again.

"Thank you, my friend." He replied. He swayed on his feet as his friend guided them back from the bushes where they'd been resting. He narrowed his eyes to try to make out more details along the path before them. A weathered path, one that wound its way through the wood towards the largest form of civilization found for miles, just as all paths in the area did.

"May I ask where we're going, my Lord?"

"We're going to visit an old friend. I've been tracking her movements, she's not far from where we are now."

"Do we need her?"

"Her skills are... most important for the task I have at hand."

"Will she be a threat to your safety?"

He chuckled, deep and carelessly. "I assume she could be, however we needn't worry about such things."

"You should know my concern regardless."

"And I thank you, my friend. But, well, shall we say I have such insurance on her behaviour that it would make it hard for her to harm me, even if she holds my complete trust in that she never would. We are old friends, you see? Like you, I helped her when her life was controlled by the evil of this world. And while she claims she is indebted to me, I see it only as one friend helping another find the right path."

"Hmphf."

"But for now, her skills will be of use to us greatly. The Uchiha boy is far stronger than I'd anticipated, and so it seems proximity may be a factor in play after all."

"I thought being close didn't matter, though."

"Pardon that mistake, it's more precise to say that proximity  _shouldn't_ affect the strength of the jutsu. However, it seems impossible people make impossible things happen, I suppose."

His companion remained silent, as though thinking things through. He looked at him slyly from the corner of his eye as he explained.

"If we have any chance of holding onto the Uchiha, two things need to happen. The first, we must move closer to him. And the second, we must cut off the only asset the Leaf has to them, a way to release my jutsu."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Well you see my friend, I have learned the Leaf has access to an _U_ _nbinding Scroll."_

"What's that?"

"Do not confuse this with a simple unsealing jutsu." He warned as he remembered that brief memory in the Leaf village hospital from when he'd controlled the Uchiha boy only moments previous. Those idiots of the Leaf. They had no idea what that thing was. "An Unbinding Scroll is a dangerous weapon once created by the Uzumaki clan of the Hidden Eddy village. While it can unseal jutsu, it can be used for far more than that. Imagine anything on this plane being bound to another in some way. It can be as simple as unbinding a seal from a host, or perhaps if you take it a step further what's to stop one from unbinding the chakra from one's network? What about the memories from the mind? Or the soul from the body? This scroll is a weapon, and only one of many reasons the Uzumaki clan were once feared above all others. Although it is worth pointing out that despite this incredible knowledge and power, never once did the Uzumaki's use this weapon to harm another being despite the destructive power it is capable of unleashing."

"But then why does the Leaf have it?"

At that, his lip curled into a sneer. 

"I'm not entirely sure. Although, and as I was taught as a child, the First Hokage's wife was of the Uzumaki clan. I assume some of the clan's information transferred during such a unification of two great powers. It could be they believed a scroll of such power would be safe in the hands of someone as mighty as the First Hokage." His jaw clenched. His eyes flamed with renewed rage. "Or perhaps this transfer, or dare I say theft, happened after the annihilation of the Hidden Eddy village and the secret massacre of the Uzumaki people--"

He had tripped on a root and stumbled, the fire losing its spark in his gaze. He blinked.

"... Um, my Lord? Would you prefer if I helped you walk?"

"No, no need for that, my dear Katsuo."

"Yes, but, you see sir..."

He didn't need to hear what his companion was about to say, because from the way that butterfly just passed him he could tell well enough. His body wasn't used to that much pressure, that much power while he took host in another. Each step was wobbly, and he was breathing as though he'd just run for days in the deserts of the Land of Wind. He needed time to rest. But now was not the time to rest. Now was the time to act. They'd been given an opportunity, an opportunity to rid the Leaf village of the control they still held over him. _S_ _till._  After all these years...

"I'll be fine, my friend. We really do need to make haste."

However despite their agonizingly slow pace, the constant connection in his mind was growing more distinct as they travelled onward, signifying that they indeed had made it to the outskirts of their destination. Haphazard, apocalyptic buildings towered above them in a menacing greeting to the filthy interior of the city. A city he had been to many times in his past, but under different circumstances. Okaya. Some, from the grandeur of the ninja villages, called it the city of terror. The people here called it by an alternative name. The city of great loss.

Underfoot the overgrowth continued, but now speckled with tough stone brick that had lasted here for a millennia. This city was old, much older than the ninja villages themselves. A forgotten paradise. The neglected homeland.

Like all things in this shinobi world, power breeds fear, and fear breeds destruction. And with the destruction of old power, there brings way to the inheritance of new power. It is only human nature to feel such things; the desire for power, the jealousy and unease that erupts from this power, and therefore a means for war. This cycle has always been there, and has always been the inhibitor of true peace and the destructive agent of innocent lives in this accursed world since the days of old. This city had once been the greatest power around, and because of this cycle, because of humanity's innate fear of the curse of power, it has been reduced to the very imagery of what the shinobi's soul possesses. The ugly truth revealed.

He searched through his connection. She was here, hiding from the very shinobi who she'd once sworn to serve, just as the countless others who sought sanctuary in Okaya. A  _rogue ninja_ is what the ninja villages preferred to call them. A term used to dehumanize them and incriminate their actions, no matter if those laws that incriminated them were the things corrupted in the first place. In most cases, a rogue ninja was not someone who was a criminal, but instead only someone who society  _chose_ to push down that path.

It was convenient really that she'd fled to Okaya, as he himself had a few loose ends to tie up here before they left. He searched for another connection in his mind, one at a time as he couldn't possibly do multiple, and found the woman who he'd marked years and years ago. A beggar woman who the pair found rather quickly. She was mousy and thin. Her eyes twitchy and wide. She'd surely had her fair share of hardships in as harsh a place like this, as did most women in poverty. He vaguely wondered just how a pitiful thing as she had survived after so many years, but not one week ago she'd been a major asset to him.

It'd been merely coincidence when through her eyes he'd seen none other than the Fifth Hokage, short and stout, leading a team of ANBU Black Ops through these same weathered streets. It had been child's play in placing a new mark on one of them, and destroying the scroll that held the body of that  _evil, heinous_  man within. Once and for all wiping a dirty stain from the earth. He enjoyed the thrill of terrifying that incompetent woman, the Hokage, far more than he should have. But he had a lot to blame her clan for, and so, it seemed, the excessiveness was justifiable. Now, the Leaf unfortunately knew more about his jutsu than he'd prefer. He'd been careless in allowing that companion of the Fifth Hokage to survive, and because of his miscalculation, they were discovering more about him. While in the Uchiha's body, he could've just as easily finished the job in the Leaf village hospital. But there was no point to that man's death any longer. The Leaf had learned everything they could from him. It would've only resulted in more senseless violence. He knew the Leaf would be back and searching for answers. They'd obviously been trying to retrieve Madara Uchiha's body, and whatever villainous things they were hoping to do with it afterwards he'd never be quite sure. 

And so as a result, unfortunately, tracks needed to be covered.

He approached the beggar woman who unknowingly bore his mark as she sat at the corner of a dingy alleyway. Her eyes were wide, but lifeless. Her hair matted. No one would look twice. It was barely morning. The darkness of the night had finally shifted into lighter hues that cast a delicate shadow in front of him. She stiffened as he approached and squatted down beside her, confirming his belief that her life with men had been difficult. But behind the immediate flight response in her eyes, he saw the inklings of intrigue grow and fester as she began studying his face. That same intrigue that many who looked at him felt. Admiration and desire. Viewing him as though a piece of artwork rather than as the person he was. He'd always found appearances trivial, because for the life he led, deception was everything.

"... What are you?" She'd asked quietly, her voice shrilly and afraid. His perfectly arched brows rose at that, finding amusement in her question, in her intrigue, and in the fear he saw deeper. 'What are you', as opposed to 'Who are you'. He'd never been asked that before, even if he'd read it in people's eyes many, many times in his life.

He grinned at her in lieu of responding. His eyes unblinking as he looked into her own. In a flurry of handsigns his palm glowed with a radiating white light. He reached out to touch her shoulder, where the connection was at its strongest, where the mark lay invisible beneath, and she did not flinch away. Like he had many times before, he watched as the light in her eyes faded away, the last of her breath escape her. The connection he held with this woman in the back of his mind shattered and disappeared. When he stood and walked away, with her body slumped against that wall by the alleyway where it would remain for eternity, he had already forgotten her face.

"Was that the one you were looking for, my Lord?" Katsuo had asked after a moment of silence between them. They'd walked off down the street a ways. He turned to look back at his large friend.

"No, that... was necessary. The one we are looking for, Mai, is further. Come."

They turned a corner, then another, twisting and turning throughout the town until he found what he'd been looking for. In the smallest part of his mind, he felt a stronger connection, stronger and stronger still as he padded up the steps and into the establishment.

The establishment, he soon discovered, was a seedy pub. Inside the tables were overturned, the chairs splintered from having been thrown. Large men slept their drink off from the previous night's events, beaten and bruised, laying greasily in their own vomit. Their quaking snores were the only indication that they were still alive. The barkeep shook his head at the patrons in disappointment as he continued cleaning up their mess. And there, across the chaos of broken wood and spilled alcohol, lay the sleeping form of his old friend, who alongside the other sleeping patrons didn't seem to fit in quite as well.

She was small, one might call her petite. Her attire was similar to when he'd last seen her so many years ago now, but only slightly different. She wore light pink and rose coloured clothing adorned with red. Loose pants that cut off in an elastic at the knee, and a loose shirt that did similarly so at the elbow. She wore a sort of shawl wrapped about her waist, and her silky brown hair was done up in two perfect buns on the top of her head. And like always, she wore no shoes.

As they pushed through the maze of the pub, he could see the same natural smile adorning her mouth, and the same rosy blush she always had on her youthful porcelain face. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Mai, my dear." He spoke slowly, carefully. A grin graced his face. "Mai, please wake up."

She woke up slowly, rubbing one large eye and then the other, whining a little as she blinked up at the pair innocently. But how innocent can one really look when surrounded by the results of their own destructive power...

"... Sho?" She asked quietly, rubbing her eyes again to reexamine his face. "Sho!" She smiled, giggling as she jumped forward, standing on her toes and wrapping her arms about his neck like a particularly excited child. She batted her lashes a little as she pulled back to get a better look at him, the slight blush on her cheeks now flooding with red. "It's been so long! And, wow, you haven't changed a bit, have you..."

"Yes, my friend. Too long." He answered, grinning softly as he gestured to his much larger friend behind him. "Mai, this is Katsuo. And Katsuo, this is my dear friend Mai."

"Ooh, you're nice and strong, aren't you!" She chirped throwing a sly wink at the giant. Katsuo huffed. Mai looked back over at him. "But Sho, what is it? You seem tired."

"I just need some rest, but it'll have to wait for now. Mai, I've come to see you because I need you to do something for me."

At that, her cheerfulness wavered slightly, replaced briefly by skepticism and frustration. She sat back down on the bench she'd been sleeping on, and tucked her hands under her legs. She looked at him curiously when that cheerful facade had returned.

"What's happened Shoya?"

"The time has finally come. We have a chance to set the world back on the right path, my dear friend. After all these years of waiting..."

Her gaze fell to the ground. Her cheeks puffed out as she thought in silence.

She hesitated. "Isn't... the world okay now, though? The war is over... There's peace, isn't there?"

He nodded solemnly. He placed a hand on her shoulder in reassurance, but at the touch she stiffened, her eyes watched him unblinkingly, her muscles ready to spring. He grinned at that. She knew him too well to trust such a gesture. He removed his hand slowly, a peace offering.

"This peace we see is an illusion. Just as they always have, the ninja villages are blind to the true causes of these wars and therefore the peaceful aftermath they tend to glorify. The heroes that come out of these wars are not champions of peace, only enablers of the cycle of pain that the shinobi world will always cling to. They do not see the true suffering of the nations, they only choose to look when someone once again fits their definition of a disruptor of the peace. Tell me, Mai. You say the world is at peace but have you been pardoned by the Hidden Stone village for your 'crimes'?"

With her jaw clenched, she stared back at him. "No." She said finally, her voice tiny and small, befitting the rest of her physique.

"Just as I have always believed; there is no peace if there is no justice." He turned to Katsuo. "And you, my friend, do you believe your former masters who've been disposed of would've thought that your freedom was justifiable?"

"Far from it." Katsuo spat distastefully.

"What do you want, Shoya?" Mai's childish facade had finally been brought down, revealing the frustration that she unleashed when provoked underneath.

He sat down beside her, his hands clasped in his lap.

"I wish for your help."

She sighed. This frustration wasn't directed at him, he could see that now. She looked tired, and tired of running. Tired of being afraid.

"Sho... I really want to help you, I really do. You're right, the world is just as bad as it's always been, and something needs to change. I can agree with that." She looked up at him then, the youthfulness of her face now lined with years of pain and anger and confusion. Her eyes pleading. "But you're going to get yourself killed trying to do it. Sho, I've seen what those people from the Leaf village can do, and right now they are at their most powerful. Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzu--..." She stiffened and stopped. "Sorry." She said quietly.

"Why are you apologizing." He asked.

"I just hurt for you, that's all..." She replied quietly. "What do you plan to do? If you're taking on the ninja villages then how do you expect to fight them?  _Shoya,_ you do realize that you're trying to wage war on the world, right?"

"It's not the world I have problems with, it is the people who rule it." He stated. "And I do not plan to confront them. I intend for them to see the truth. That's all."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Okay, and how do you plan to make them 'see the truth' oh wise one?"

"Sasuke Uchiha bears my mark."

"Oh..." Mai's brows lowered.  _"Oh."_

"Direct confrontation against all five Great Nations is suicide, I understand that. But as this is meant to be an awakening, if you will, to the truth hiding beneath the illusionary peace they've created, then perhaps this can also be an awakening to the corruption of the shinobi military way. Simply put, they will not be able to harm me, because we will be playing on two separate fields altogether."

Mai nodded her head after a moment's silence.

"I'll help you, but only because I don't want you to get yourself killed..." Her innocence flooded back into her youthful face, however this time it wasn't a facade. This time he saw that same young girl, barely old enough to venture alone, that he'd found all those years ago, bloodied and fleeing for her life in a torrential downpour. That same young girl who'd followed him around for days like a chick to a mother hen before he finally relented. The look on her face now was the same as back then. When everyday consisted of Mai looking up to him as a younger sister would their older brother.  _"Shoya,_ promise me now. Promise you won't get yourself killed."

His face was blank for but a moment before he placed a hand atop her head.

"I don't intend to die without righting the wrongs of the shinobi world, my friend."

Mai pouted, her cheeks puffing out. "That's not a promise..."

"My Lord, I hate to intrude, but..." Katsuo had turned to look at the lone barkeep across the pub, who, regardless of how much he'd tried to ignore the odd party's conversation, had been privy to too much already.

The barkeep turned then, his eyes wide with fear. He was an older man, his dark hair greying along the sides. The wrinkles that pulled down his mouth told of an unhappy life of dealing with drunken fools. He'd dropped the broom with a wooden  _clack_ as he took a few wary steps towards a door back behind him.

"Ah, no need to be afraid, my friend."

_(The barkeeps eyes twitched over to the man who spoke. But as he did, it was as though his mind went blank, and he fell to the floor. The barkeep couldn't remember where he was or what had been going on. What day was it again? And then he heard a voice speaking, one that sounded familiar but he couldn't know from where.)_

"Mai, put him to rest, would you?"

A jab to the side of his neck left the barkeep in an unconscious sleep. Mai pulled back and looked over at her companions for reassurance.

"You did well, Mai. He won't remember a thing."

"Hmphf." Katsuo agreed.

Mai's large eyes turned down on the sleeping barkeep. But her mind was somewhere far away.

"Where will we go now, Shoya?"

"We are running against the clock, at the moment. While Sasuke Uchiha bears my mark, he is too powerful to control for long periods at a time."

"I thought you told me it was impossible to resist your jutsu?" Mai asked confusedly.

_(Indeed, in all her childhood travelling with him, never once had he failed to protect her from danger. And never once had his jutsu failed to save her from the people coming after her. For a moment, she felt her faith in him slip, if only slightly. Was there someone who could actually resist his control? Was he getting weaker? Was he ill?_

_In her eyes, there was no one more powerful than him, despite her knowledge of the people of the Leaf. There could never be someone more powerful than him, because to her, he was the last thing she held dear to her heart. He was the last one in this world who cared about her.)_

"As it should be." He answered. "However, we've recently discovered the Leaf has a way of releasing my mark from the host's body. That is why I need your help. We must return this scroll that they use back to it's rightful place. And in doing so, we've secured my permanent hold on the Uchiha boy."

"A scroll? What's it look like?"

"I shall explain the details to you later."

"So now we're going to the Leaf?"

"Yes, my friend. It seems we've been given no alternative. Will you help me and retrieve this scroll?"

Mai sighed, her hands on her hips. She levelled him with a stern look, which due to her youthful appearance made him smile a little bit.

"On one condition."

"And what is that?"

"You abandoned me, Sho. I was terrified, and you left me alone." She frown at him. A stout finger was pointed accusingly at his face. "You don't leave me behind again. Don't  _ever_ leave me behind again."

Instead of excusing himself, he only nodded his head. "I do not intend to do so. And I apologize sincerely for that awful day so long ago now. I'm glad you've found it in your heart to forgive me, my dear."

Her face blushed pink to match her clothing. She toed at the wooden flooring to hide her embarrassment.

"It wasn't that hard to do."

"I'm glad."

She smiled then, skipping over to join them and latching onto his sleeve. Katsuo glared at her. She pulled him towards the door.

"Then come _on,_ Sho! What're we waiting for!"

As they exited the pub door, early morning rays graced their basking faces. The sky was golden, not yellow, and not orange. But a golden colour that nearly sang to them as they continued on down the street to finally leave this godforsaken city.

"Oh! It's beautiful out!" Mai twirled. Katsuo gave her a disapproving look. "You know what that means, Sho? It's a good omen, it'll bring us good luck!"

"I do hope so, my dear friend." He answered. But as soon as he'd said it, he'd known something to be wrong. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. How could he have been so careless?

They'd been surrounded. He recognized the condensed feel of these chakra signatures, all eight of them, as was the usual with ANBU Black Ops while on the hunt. They weren't after him, how could they be? So he turned to his companions, who had both noticed the ANBU's presence shortly after he had. When he stopped walking, within the barren confines of the overgrown street, so did his two companions.

"Sho...?" Mai's voice was quiet and small. She was frightened.

He looked at the rooftop where he'd instantly pinpointed the ANBU's chakra.

"You can come out now." He called, his voice sounding unperturbed to the ANBU who looked to their squad leaders for direction in mild confusion. Two stepped into view on the rooftop, and the remaining six teleported to surround the odd group of three in a circle.

Mai grabbed at his pant legs and hid behind him. Katsuo puffed air from his nostrils like a bull.

"ANBU?" He feigned surprise. Although he was interested to learn that these ANBU were not of solely one nation. But  _two_. Half of the ANBU were dressed in the classic lilac and black uniform of the Leaf village, and the others had the multi-toned brown cloth of the Stone village. "What may we do for you, this morning?"

"We have a kill-on-sight warrant for Mai Sato, a rogue ninja of the Hidden Stone village. We've been given permission to act in accordance with the Leaf due to intel that you were hiding in the Land of Fire, girl." The Stone ANBU leader called down from the roof, his head turning to look at Mai. "There doesn't need to be any problems. We're only looking for justice where justice needs to be served. You've run from us for too long, girl, but your crimes can't go unpaid for forever."

"Sho..." Mai's voice was shaking now. Her small hands held his pant leg in a firmer grip. "Shoya, I don't want to die just yet."

He placed a hand on her head in the same way he'd comforted her in the past. She was powerful, and she was strong. He knew that about her. She was also brave when she needed to be, and fearless in a fight. But these people had hurt her. They'd taken everything away from her, including her own freedom. And now they were here to take the last thing she had; her life. It was wrong, and it was cruel. It needed to end.

"My dear Mai, look at the sky. It's golden, precious, just as you are precious to me. A golden sky is a good omen, right?" He grinned softly at her when she turned large eyes to look up at him. "You will not die this day."

And while his grin had been gentle before, as his eyes turned towards the ANBU once again, a fire raging through his gaze, his grin widened into something more sinister and less forgiving.

The Stone ANBU leader snorted skeptically down at him. "Who even are you?"

He chuckled, his eyes narrowing, willing the man in front of him to _burn._

"I am no one."

 

*

  

A knock on the front door pulled Kakashi from bed for the second time that night. It was at least midmorning now, he could see from the strong rays of golden glow that fluttered in from the window beside his and Iruka's bed as he immediately opened his eyes, alert and tense, at the noise. Iruka, however, only grumbled in his sleep and turned over in annoyance. 

A second knock pounded on the door when Kakashi lazily pulled himself from bed after a moment, urging his briskness. Iruka jolted awake, his hair messy and his eyes wild.

"Wha--...?"

"It's alright, go back to sleep. It's work..."

"God damn it Kakashi..." Iruka mumbled, nearly indecipherably, as he hitched the blankets up a little higher over his ears.

Kakashi pulled on a mask, and padded over to the door, stretching his back as he went.

Although instead of a third knock, the door was busted clean off it's hinges. It sailed passed Kakashi down the hall in splinters. He heard Iruka yelp from the bedroom. He'd already pulled a kunai seemingly out of thin air, and his eyes were sharp and focused forward on instinct.

In the doorway was one heaving Tsunade, her fist practically expelling steam where it was still held outstretched from her punch. And behind her was his ANBU sub commander, Kiyoko, who looked stiff and a little frightened as she edged away from the small raging woman.

"Lord Sixth Hokage!" Tsunade boomed, and Kakashi straightened up like a child being chastised by their mother. "You're needed in the war room for war council. _Immediately."_

"I'm sorry... War council?"

But Tsunade was already turning away, shouting over her shoulder as she went. Which in hindsight may not have been the brightest of ideas, seeing as they were currently in a residential neighbourhood at the moment. Kakashi followed. He'd have to explain the door to Iruka later.

"The Raikage is leading his forces into the Land of Fire as we speak. Three-thousand. At least."

"I'm sorry,  _what?"_ Kakashi asked hopelessly, turning to Kiyoko for clarification. But she too only shook her head and urged Kakashi to the war room with a hand on both Kakashi and Tsunade's shoulders. They teleported, appearing in the midst of what appeared to be a political battle scene. The sounds of shouting and apprehension fired across the room. Shikamaru Nara was there, already in a heated discussion with an older jonin. Guy was shouting exuberantly as he tried to calm everyone down. The elders had arrived looking like birds with ruffled feathers. There was Naruto and Sakura now, entering from the side.

Kakashi strode quickly to one end of the table, a tall identifiable figure within the chaos of the crowded room. He bellowed over the rest, his voice ringing with anger that all at once caused the room to fall silent.

 _"What the hell_ is going on here?"

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not sure if I like NaruSasu or SasuNaru better...  
> Opinions are welcome
> 
> Also pretty sure Iruka's a power bottom so
> 
> I've changed a lot since pre-update, but I'm much happier with story progression now  
> Let me hear your feedback, as always thank you for your patience
> 
> Please check out my other fics if you get bored or would like to read more of my work while waiting for the next update!  
>    
> [RinHaru!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16799977/chapters/39432208) <\--- (Tooth rotting fluff and feel goodness)  
> [IwaOi!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14566011/chapters/33658008) <\--- (Angst, angst, and angst)


	7. The Great Illusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -=ATTENTION=-
> 
> This chapter is under construction! Please disregard any inconsistencies with previous chapters as I'm working on smoothing those all out as you read this.  
> Please wait for the next update if you'd prefer reading the final edit of the work, plot will flow more smoothly if you do so.
> 
> Thanks!  
> MNM

 

_[Four Hours Previously]_

 

"Can I go now?"

"Yes, you may."

Sasuke took a first step. Then another. Willing his legs not to buckle as he departed the morgue with a clenched fist. The harsh white light burned his eyes. His heart pounded heavily, like a beating war drum. The intensity that suffocated the room made him want to run away. He was uneasy.

As soon as the hallway was unveiled by the opening of the room's door, suddenly Naruto was there. The blond hesitated to step toward him. He'd been chewing his fingernails nervously, but now his focus was entirely upon Sasuke.

"Uh... Sasuke?" Naruto proceeded slowly. But there was worry and relief strung in his voice. It showed in his magnificent eyes too, which were hovering on Sasuke's face, as though looking for injury. Or perhaps recognition.

The door swung shut behind him as he stepped into the hall. There were angry voices sounding behind the door the moment he'd done so. Naruto looked at the door, then back as Sasuke. He took a step toward him. A fake chuckle sounded deep in his throat.

"Man, you had me back there. Very funny Sasuke. I--I was really freaked out..." The blond's smile faded slowly. Sasuke watched him. His heart heavy.

There was a muffled shout from behind the door now. A deeper voice. It was Kakashi. Naruto began worrying his lip when it rung through the hallway.

Sasuke turned and began down the hall, leaving the morgue, and the shouts with it, behind. His footsteps were silent. His nails dug into his palm. He heard Naruto catch up to him and appeared in his periphery. The blond rambled nervously. Sasuke tuned him out.

They were in the hospital, that much had been discernible when he'd finally come back to his senses. And while he didn't actually know how to get out of the building from where they were, he could always just teleport back to his apartment and save himself some trouble. But still he walked, just to confirm he was truly here. To feel the air pulled in and pushed from his lungs to reinforce the knowledge that this was surely reality and not a dream. He could feel the bright warmth of Naruto's chakra signature from beside him. The way it seemed to heat the one side of his shoulder and torso as though expelling golden steam. And he could sense Naruto's worry as well. He could see the shift of a blond crown when Naruto would glance up at him every few seconds.

A hand pulled at the shirt on his ribcage below his stump, gently. And without thinking, but with fluid grace, Sasuke was suddenly holding Naruto's wrist. It was gripped in such a way that one swift push could break the cartilage there easily. In Sasuke's eyes there burned momentary anger, but the second he turned to face his opponent, only now remembering Naruto was the only one here with him, his expression relaxed. Naruto's gaze was honest. His rambling had ceased. They locked eyes unblinkingly.

Sasuke dropped Naruto's wrist. Naruto reached out for Sasuke's own, and pulled, holding and preventing the raven from walking away as he was just about to. Sasuke's arm jerked as he felt the immediate response to pull away from the touch. But he ignored this reaction, and he instead allowed the touch to happen.

"Sasuke..." Naruto's voice strained a little. "Sasuke, what's wrong with you? You-- You're acting weird. Or, uh, at least weirder than usual."

Sasuke remained silent.

"Answer me, damn it!" Naruto's grip subconsciously tightened about Sasuke's wrist. "For once, won't you just tell me what's wrong?"

Sasuke continued to watch on silently. This apparently infuriated Naruto.

"I'm  _worried_ about you, I'm not trying to make fun of you or anything. Can't you see that? You weren't yourself back there, and I was--... I'm just--..." He trailed off. The grip on Sasuke's hand loosened, and then Naruto let go. His blue eyes fell away from Sasuke's face, but in them there was still anger.

Where had their night gone to from before? For Sasuke, it felt like mere minutes since he and Naruto had been peacefully opening up to each other in the familiarity of his apartment. Not the cold dead interior of the Konoha hospital. Back at the apartment, Sasuke had felt relief. It'd been quiet, intimate, and he'd been happy. Naruto had been smiling then. So how did they get here -- with Naruto sulking in the hallway? Why was it always Sasuke that made Naruto feel this way?

"You  _idiot,_ Sasuke!" Naruto swung at his face, but the punch was quickly deflected. The second punch to his sternum was less easy to block. He caught the end of it, only staggering back a few steps to regain his balance and his breath as it was knocked out of him, whereas he should have been sailing through the wall if it hit him properly. Naruto remained where he stood. He glared at the raven. But there was hurt in his eyes too. It confused Sasuke a bit, consumed as he was by his own guilt.

He almost thought Naruto would begin yelling at him again, relapsing back to the times when they'd fight and argue when Sasuke had left the village. Instead, Naruto remained silent. As though waiting for an answer. No,  _because_ he was waiting for an answer.

He heart the clacking of shoes down the hall. The distant bustle of the hospital as nurses checked in on patients throughout the night. Sasuke's gaze remained firm.

"Hey. Naruto." Sasuke spoke quietly so his voice wouldn't travel to unwanted ears. "Come with me."

Naruto frowned, but the angry expressions were soon lifting altogether as the cogs began turning. He nodded at Sasuke, and Sasuke found himself surprised at the blond's willingness. He didn't even know where, or why, and yet he trusted Sasuke enough to go without those answers. There was no need either way, Sasuke only wanted to go back to the secluded and safer walls of his home than speak while still in the hospital. Sasuke needed to work some things out. He found he was drawing blanks on how they'd even gotten here in the first place. Maybe Naruto could fill in those gaps.

He approached Naruto, preforming the teleportation handsigns with his one hand, and touched Naruto's shoulder gingerly once he was done. Around them the world flew by in a blur, and they appeared nearly instantly in the living room of his apartment. Sasuke looked to the couches next to them, those lonely things. To him, they'd only just been here, and yet when he checked the clock on the wall, it told him it'd already been just under an hour.

"Now answer me, bastard!" His attention was brought back to the blond boy before him, who, with large eyes hidden beneath frustrated brows, glared up at him expectantly. While Naruto had always been a couple inches shorter, now it felt as though he were towering above Sasuke as he held him under his fervent gaze. "What happened back there? Why'd you freak out, and why are Kakashi-sensei and Granny Tsunade so angry over it? What'd you do?"

Sasuke peered out the window adjacent to them. To the endless sea of black that held the street in silence. He tried to remember. He implored to remember. And yet, his memory was blank.

"Why were we in the hospital?" He heard himself ask, only realizing that was his own voice after the fact. He cursed his inability to remain impassive for long around Naruto. It seemed like his tight hold on his emotions slackened more and more the longer he was in the blond's company. While he normally would have felt almost relieved that he was finally letting someone in, this was dangerous. He knew the consequences if Kakashi and the Kage thought he was losing it. And from the reactions he'd seen at the hospital, and the reaction he was getting out of Naruto now, he knew something bad must have happened. But  _how_ did it happen? That's what he was really curious about.

Naruto rolled his eyes at him. "Granny got back from her mission, and we went to sit in on the debrief."

 _"We_ did." Sasuke stated, although it was more of a question. Naruto's anger lessened. He raised one eyebrow.

"Yeah. There was some ANBU chick that came to get us, remember?"

"Yes, I remember that."

"And then you said you'd like to come too."

Sasuke blinked. Had he said that?

"You were really bossy with her, y'know. She was just doing her job." Naruto pouted.

"What happened after that?"

Naruto peered at him curiously. "Sasuke are you... What d'you  _mean_ 'what happened after that'? You were there, don't you remember?"

Sasuke watched him in silence. Then he answered, his voice low and wary, understanding the ramifications this conversation could impose on himself if Naruto told anyone else about it. And yet for whatever stupid, indiscernible reason, Sasuke wanted to trust Naruto with this. He needed to purge these feelings of fear and disorientation from his mind, these same feelings that still gripped him since his dream that it feels like he'd still only just woken up from. In the back of his mind, Sasuke wondered if he was still dreaming after all.

"No." He answered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Raikage is breaking the contract of peace between our nations by marching an army at our borders. What other options do we have than to fight?"

"Nothing! We must fight!"

"We should send our forces out immediately, we mustn't show weakness." Hiashi Hyuga argued, as well as others, in the war room located beneath Hokage Tower. The room was large and spacious, a long rectangular table stretched along the innards, and seated around it were the elders, highly ranked jonin, and a varying few of the previous Konoha twelve including Sakura, Hinata, Kiba, Shikamaru, Sai, Ino, and of course Naruto. Seated at the head of the table with ANBU guards at both shoulders, sat a very serious Kakashi Hatake.

"We don't know the reason the Cloud is coming, we just know that they are. Let's not make assumptions that'll lead to war when we could be preserving the peace we still have now."

"With all due respect sir, war is already upon us."

"I don't believe that at all." Kakashi quipped, folding his arms over his chest. "We're in the aftermath of a war, the world is still broken, but healing. Can you, Hiashi Hyuga, honestly say you want to go back into battle where your comrades could potentially die? Where us few survivors of the last war, who by some stroke of grit and dumb luck hadn't been killed by the onslaught of fury and hate and vengeance, would you, Homura Mitokado, prefer us to once again risk that cycle to start over now? _I_ will not risk the future of the shinobi world, who's peace has been bled for by us and our friends, on the notion that the Raikage wishes to reignite the flames of war so soon after they've finally been put out. Is that what you wish? You wish for more pain, more hatred and more revenge?" Only when Kakashi finished did he realize he was now standing, his face twisted up in rage.

"No, Lord Hokage, you misunderstand me. I don't wish for war again, and I don't wish to see my comrades die, I think it's safe to say none of us do. However, by bringing an army to our borders the Raikage is implying a need for force, whatever the reason that may be. When we say we must fight, it is out of self defence rather than of an active feud." Hiashi Hyuga provided.

"And I'm saying I disagree with that idea. By fighting we're sinking back into that endless cycle of war willingly, but by opposing it with pacifism we can teach the world a new way to deal with our problems." Kakashi stated tersely, sitting back down in his seat. He looked passed the blur of intense expressions to see Naruto looking solemnly at the grains of the table, seemingly deep in thought. "And Naruto? What's your opinion on all of this?"

Around the table, all eyes now turned on the blond boy. He took a moment, his face still morose, his eyes tired and heavy. And then like a switch being flipped, his solemn expression morphed into anger, his fists clenching in his lap, and when he looked up at Kakashi, at all the others surrounding the table, his blue eyes burned them.

"This is wrong, this is so, so wrong! When the Akatsuki was destroyed, when Madara was killed, and finally when Kaguya was defeated I was so  _sure_ that we'd finally moved passed all the fighting in this world... My friends, my Master, they all died protecting that idea. You guys can't seriously be thinking of sending an army up there, not now after we've worked so hard for this peace!"

From beside Naruto, Shikamaru stood up. "If I can say something?" He looked around the room, vying for opposition, which there was none to be found. He commanded respect and attentiveness just as his late-father had. "Naruto's right. There's no way we're letting this peace go so quickly, otherwise everything we've worked towards will be for nothing." He levelled Hiashi Hyuga, Homura Mitokado, and the rest of the people arguing to fight with a stern unyielding gaze, as though he were chastising them like children, which was quite a sight to behold. "In no specific offense, the old customs and tendencies of the village are what is creating this perpetual cycle the Hokage keeps speaking about--"

At that there were multiple indignant protests being shouted around the table at the young strategist. The room filled with noise, but Shikamaru only raised his voice louder as he continued.

"The older generations of the village have an outdated way of looking at things. This is exactly why we've had continual wars and disputes between nations throughout the years like clockwork, because when we follow these old tendencies, we continue in this cycle of tradition, and therefore war, again and again." He turned to Kakashi. "You're right that this cycle needs to stop, and that obviously it hasn't stopped yet, even after the war. But straight pacifism in a time like this can't be the only answer, first we need to understand what's going on."

"And who are you, boy, to say our traditional views are outdated when you're not old enough to have lived to see this cycle for yourself?" A senior-ranked jonin called from the opposite end of the table. "Your father fought to protect the Leaf from threats, and he died doing so. Have you forgotten your loyalty to the village?"

Shikamaru sighed a little, the temptation to roll his eyes was clearly too great. "My father died protecting the  _world,_ not only the Leaf village. And thank you, by the way, for helping me prove my point. With the aid of Naruto and the increased interaction between the five Kage, loyalty to 'the village' will hopefully be a term that will become lost with time. This harsh segregation between nations is what creates these wars, and even now after fighting alongside the other nations in the last war, there's still people who resort back to their immediate distrust of the other nations. Can't you all see? We live in a new age now, we need to start looking passed borders to see that we're all just people looking for the same thing: peace!"

"When the Raikage chose to march towards us though, he's become a threat to our security as protectors to the Land of Fire. His actions speak less of peace and more of war, which I'm sure you can understand why us more experienced shinobi would feel the need to send an army to combat." Hiashi Hyuga spoke once again, and Shikamaru nodded at him.

"Yes, you're right. It's understandable that this situation would seem so dire, however I believe the Hokage was right in saying we should be seeking peace above war. Shinobi have lived for so long believing fighting was the only way to dissolve problems, it was what we've been born and raised to do our whole lives. But times have changed, and right now the world is easily malleable, we can change the world into whatever kind of world we want it to be! And you all choose to return to our old ways because it's what we're comfortable with? Since the Sage of Six Path's time, shinobi have been nothing but murderers. But we can change that now, don't you understand? But it starts with the here and now, meaning how we approach the first form of conflict between nations since before the last war."

"So you're suggesting anarchy? A world without order or ritual or tradition?"

"I'm suggesting we follow Lord Sixth's advice and seek peace rather than fight. Keeping the citizens of the Land of Fire safe is our first priority as Leaf shinobi, but right now we have the choice to follow a path of peace rather than outright war."

"You speak ahead of your time, Shikamaru." Tsunade smirked from across the table at him, now turning her smug expression adjacent to her at his opposition. "Brats like him are the future, not our old traditional methods of hatred, revenge, and pain that only lead to more conflict. You all should listen before you get left behind, because soon brats like him are what will be driving the world forward. I think our Hokage's values are similar, and we should be appreciative of that." She looked at Kakashi, who's dull onyx eyes watched carefully, and she winked at him.

"We are, very." Hiashi Hyuga said, now looking back and forth between Kakashi and Shikamaru. "But with peace in mind, how are we supposed to deal with the current matter at hand?"

"It would be much easier to bring an army to face them, for intimidation purposes then if not for fighting." Another jonin piped up from down the table.

"... I'll go."

All eyes once again turned on Naruto. Kakashi raised a silvery brow.

"You want to go alone?"

"I want to convince the Raikage to stop what he's doing before he does something unthinkable."

"Not considering safety concerns if things go poorly, why exactly should I let you go alone?"

"Because this is my duty! I said I'd create a better world, and I intend to do just that."

"Well, obviously you wouldn't understand but I can't have you going alone. Perhaps an elite team will do. And I'll be with you."

The room was deadly quiet for a moment, then every person was shouting their disagreement at the Hokage in unison. The war room exploded with noise, the elders were red in the face. Kakashi laced his fingers carefully atop the desk and waited patiently.

"The Hokage  _must_ remain in the village, you  _must_ maintain order and security for the people here--"

"It gives the other nations time to launch an attack, we'd be vulnerable without a central command--"

"You  _idiot_ , Kakashi! I didn't make you Hokage so you could run around outside! I spent my years trapped in here like a hamster and now you're gonna do the same--"

"Please! My dear comrades! Please quiet down!" Guy's exuberant voice called loud above the rest. He held both hands up preach-style, and a wide white grin sparkled as he finally looked up from the table to his mostly quieted peers. "My dear rival Kakashi thinks it would be for the best if he went along with young Naruto, and I agree as well. If the Raikage is leading his forces, it would only be for the best if someone of his authority from our side would be there to represent us. Oh, my rival! You're a clever one!"

"The Raikage is stubborn and strong-willed. It's best if I go along to deal with him specifically." Kakashi supplied. Another wave of protests hurled over his head. "In the past we've always said the Hokage must remain in the village at all costs as a last line of defence, but as Shikamaru pointed out earlier, we are in a time of peace. There will be no war between nations if I can help it now, and there will be no large scale battles or need for self-defence in the village as well, as long as we all work to maintain this peace in the world together."

His gaze flickered over at Tsunade knowingly, and she narrowed her eyes at him in response. Because she must have figured it out by now; this was a trap. Not for Kakashi, or at least not hopefully, but for whoever their mystery person is who's been possessing people and placing sealing jutsu on them. With Kakashi gone, there was a higher chance they'd strike, which also meant a higher chance of catching them. But it also meant if Sasuke went rogue, they wouldn't be able to stop him. Kakashi looked over at Naruto.

"Naruto, you'll be staying here."

"What--!"

"Actually, Kakashi, I think Naruto should go." Tsunade said cryptically. He looked at her for a long time while Naruto continued to argue and plead Kakashi.

"Fine. I'll be leading the team. Are there any volunteers? I need a Hyuga and an Inuzuka for pinpoint tracking."

Kiba and Hinata offered before their parents could.

"Very well, Sai, we'll need an ink eagle as well."

The pale boy, who'd remained quiet up until now, nodded curtly. "Yes, Lord Sixth."

"When was the last time we had an update on the Raikage's position? Where is he now?" Kakashi asked no one in particular.

A young kunoichi from intel hastily flipped through her notepad. "One hour ago, and he was nine kilometres from the border."

"It was an ANBU unit that first spotted them while tracking another rogue ninja into the Land of Lightning." His ANBU sub-captain, Kiyoko, supplied from beside Kakashi in a hushed whisper. "The army was approximately one thousand shinobi, plus the Raikage."

Kakashi nodded to her once, then was focusing his attention back to the discussion around the table.

"--leave immediately?"

"Yes, time is of the essence, unfortunately." Shikamaru stated bluntly, stifling a yawn. 

"We'll be ready to leave in three hours." Kakashi announced, but mostly to Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba.

Hinata and Kiba nodded in affirmation, Naruto complained.

"What? But I'm ready to leave now--"

"Lady Tsunade will act as Hokage regent while I'm away. I assume we can reach a consensus on that matter quickly?" Kakashi continued.

"Sheesh, if you really didn't want the Hokage position that badly, Kakashi, you could've just turned it down, you know." Tsunade teased, her arms crossed about her chest.

"How will we know whether the mission was successful or not?" Genma, who'd been surprisingly docile, asked from one corner of the table.

"I'll send my ninken with mission results once we've made contact." 

"My dearest rival! I wish you all the best, you're in the springtime of your youth, don't you forget that. Now, go, and save the world for us again!" Guy threw a thumbs up and another beaming grin down the table at Kakashi.

Hiashi Hyuga nodded curtly. Homura Mitokado glared.

Kakashi stood, looking around the war room. "I know that the Hokage leaving the village is unconventional and not according to standard protocol, however I thank you all for being understanding while we're blessed with these particular circumstances. There's little reason to believe this issue cannot be solved with peaceful negotiation, however in the meantime I expect platoon leaders to begin assembling their squads as per Lady Tsunade's instructions and waiting on standby. Based on Sai's jutsu's flying speed, we should reach the border before nightfall, which means if all goes according to plan I'll send an update back on whether or not we'll need to use force after all." Kakashi gaze shifted around the room, passing by each face, and finally stopping to lock sight with the skeptical, scrutinizing eyes of the elders. "I am a soldier, and I intend to defend the village with my life if it comes to that. However, I also firmly believe this is a situation where force isn't necessary. Together as a community, as a village, and as nations banded together we're striving for a better world, and it can all start fresh with this interaction. This is for the greater good of the future as much as the present."

The meeting adjourned shortly afterwards. A tension hung in the air, although far less palpable than before. Thanks to Shikamaru's efforts, it seemed that people were beginning to understand the concept of peace a little better. Tsunade hung back after everyone else had left, obviously concluding Kakashi was hoping to speak with her. Kakashi stifled a yawn despite his body being pumped full of adrenaline. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_(lol the rest of this chapter is still under construction, thank you for you patience! Updating shortly!)_


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